Vacation Rental Ruse: How An Idyllic Farmland Property Lured Many in the Chicago-Area for Thousands of Dollars

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It was branded as an outdoor adventure. Only a three-hour drive southwest of Chicago, customers could escape to the town of Farmington, Ill., staying at an eight-bedroom, 30-acre lakeside vacation rental retreat. Surrounded by open farm land, online advertisements for “Norris Outdoor Adventure” showed water slides, a rope swing, games for the kids, and even more reassuring, a smiling, friendly…

It was branded as an outdoor adventure.

When customers called the owner for their refund, with contracts in hand laying out that very promise, they say the owner “ghosted” them, never to be heard from again. Records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests paint a picture of a mountain of debt and despair, all centered around the spacious and charming property many hopeful customers now believe they will never see in person.

“We were super excited about it,” Oskroba said. “[Norris] checked off all of our areas: eight bedrooms, water, yard for the kids. Affordable.” Oskroba paid in full for a reservation this past Labor Day 2022, and months went by before the first curveball. Oskroba reserved the property through Shymansky, not giving it a second thought until weeks later, when she tried to pull up the listing online.

Through her persistence, Oskroba decided to go another route: Find, organize and communicate with as many other Norris customers she could find online. Jay Rudisill and his now-wife, Karen, visited the Norris property in-person and walked away thinking “that was where we were going to have our wedding.”

“I’ve given up hope that I will ever see that money again,” Jay Rudisill told NBC 5, after he said Shymansky stopped returning his calls, emails and even letters demanding his money back.When Allred heard about the Rudisills, and other customers in the self-named Norris"support group", she said she couldn’t believe how many people were allegedly“I felt like, ‘Why, you dirty dog! You’re doing this to so many people!’” Allred told NBC 5.

Eventually, Trygve Meade, Shymansky’s most recent counsel, told NBC 5, “I'm sorry, but I haven't been authorized by my client to make any comment on this situation. As a result, I have to decline.”

 

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