A woman working as a notary public is accused of using her position to commit deed fraud and steal more than 20 homes throughout Philadelphia, the District Attorney’s office announced Wednesday.
Gwendolyn Schell, 67, of Germantown faces the following charges: Criminal Conspiracy, Corrupt Organizations, Theft by Unlawful Taking, Theft by Deception Identity Theft, Forgery, Tampering with Records, Securing Execution.
According to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, Schell forged signatures on documents to illegally transfer the deeds of properties in various parts of the city. The scheme began in 2017 and in some cases, Krasner’s office said Schell backdated notarized documents. This was an attempt to make it appear as though the homeowners approved the transaction of their properties before they died, prosecutors allege.
Other victims are living homeowners, according to Krasner.
A notary public is a state-appointed public official who serves as an impartial witness for legal document signings, including deeds and mortgages.
“It has been a priority of the Philadelphia DA’s office since we took office in 2018 to protect homeownership, to protect our seniors, to protect people who don’t have all of the resources in the world,” Krasner said Wednesday. “The big picture is this, if you don’t not have a lot of money, a lot of us know what that’s like…and somebody steals your house…you don’t get a public defender. We don’t have a right in this country, if this is a civil matter…to automatically have counsel. There are some organizations that may try to help you, but it becomes a very, very difficult situation for your family.”
The properties stolen by Schell and other co-conspirators, who have not been publicly identified, are located across the city of Philadelphia:
100 block of West Abbottsford Road
2700 block of North 19 Street
2100 block of West Clearfield Street
Two houses on the 4800 block of Ogden Street
The 10 block of North 50 Street
2100 block of Bellevue Street
2800 block of North 27 Street
2900 block of North Ringgold Street
2100 block of West Indiana Avenue
1200 block of West Cambria Street
2400 block of North Bouviere Street
2600 block of North 17 Street
5500 block of North Fairhill Street
1800 block of North 23 Street
3000 block of North 24 Street
1500 block of West Firth Street
1300 block of East Lycoming Street
600 block of East Stafford Street
2900 block of West Susquehanna Avenue
1900 block of West Hilton Street
When NBC10 stopped by Germantown home address listed under Schell’s name, no one answered the door at first. Later, someone who was identified as a family member provided her email address to NBC10.
Neither our phone call nor email requesting a comment has been returned, as of this writing.
Megan Chisenhall, owner of South Philly Notary, has been a notary public for six years. She said trust and integrity are among the most important parts of the job.
“Just like any other profession, put into the wrong hands…with any type of power, it can go south,” Chisenhall said.
She said unfortunately, fraud attempts are not unheard of.
“This could happen to anybody. We see a lot of fraud. People coming in trying to commit fraud, whether it be car titles, anything that they can get a financial gain on,” she said. “It happens, people are out here losing cars, homes. We just have to work as a community and do what we can to stop it.”
The DA’s office has set up a deed fraud hotline at 215-686-9902 to report house deed theft.
