That Long Island guy who decided to pay off the two mortgages on his $1 million McMansion by selling raffle tickets for his house at $50 a pop, and then burned all the suckers buyers by not holding the raffle at all and allegedly keeping the money? He's caught the attention of the Nassau county DA, who says 16,000 chumps people bought tickets from homeowner John Luongo. Or, as he puts it, they actually bought "portraits" of his five bedroom, 4 bathroom Massapequa home (painted "by a local artist") and received, as an added bonus, a "free" raffle ticket. But it looks like it was all scam!!! Last week Luongo posted this announcement on his From Raffles to Riches website: more ›

Things were looking grim for Long Island homeowner John Luongo last year. With a wife and child to support, he found himself $1.25 million behind on two mortgages he took out on his five bedroom, 4 bathroom home on a canal in Massapequa. Foreclosure loomed, but with his back against the wall Luongo came up with a plan: Start a $50 raffle for the property (which is appraised at $1.6 million dollars), use the money to pay off the mortgages, and walk away debt-free. He'd even throw in his 2007 Mercedes, valued at $95K! But would he find enough gullible rubes on the South Shore of Long Island for his scheme to work? more ›

A 17-year-old student at Massapequa High School died of bacterial meningitis yesterday. Michael Gruber had gone to bed with flu-like symptoms on Wednesday and on Thursday morning his parents were unable to wake him up. He died at New Island Hospital. more ›