What Happened
Nassau County police arrested two people in a coordinated residential rental fraud operation spanning at least four communities, with charges announced Sunday, September 6, 2026, according to News 12 Long Island.
The scheme surfaced after a 49-year-old woman tried to rent a house on Meadowbrook Road in Hempstead. Nassau County police say she arranged a rental agreement with a man and a woman, then handed them $7,000 covering first month’s rent and a security deposit. When she returned the next day to collect paperwork, the actual homeowner met her at the door. He told her he had never rented the property to anyone, and that a lockbox mounted outside the house had been damaged and the key removed.
Detectives traced the Meadowbrook Road transaction to Aurelia Soogea, 39, of West Hempstead. Police arrested Soogea on August 19, 2026. During that investigation, Soogea allegedly handed detectives a fraudulent New York State driver’s license. Nassau County police say she also carried out at least one additional rental scam in Hicksville, separate from the fraud ring she allegedly operated with her co-defendant.
William Fickbohm, 71, of Lakeview, was the second arrest. Authorities announced his arrest Sunday. Nassau County detectives determined that Fickbohm and Soogea together ran fraudulent residential rental scams in West Hempstead, East Meadow, and Hicksville, according to News 12 Long Island.
Location & Road Context
The scams targeted residential properties across four Nassau County communities: Hempstead, West Hempstead, East Meadow, and Hicksville. The confirmed anchor address is Meadowbrook Road in Hempstead. West Hempstead, East Meadow, and Hicksville are all within the central Nassau corridor, roughly bounded by the Southern State Parkway to the south and the Long Island Expressway to the north.
Nassau County’s local incident database on this site carries 1,249 recorded accidents — the volume of public-safety activity in the county gives context to the strain on detectives handling property-crime caseloads alongside traffic enforcement.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
Both defendants face three shared counts: second-degree burglary, third-degree grand larceny, and first-degree scheme to defraud. Fickbohm faces one additional count — criminal possession of a forged instrument — tied to the alleged use of a fraudulent document during the investigation. Soogea faces the same forged-instrument exposure through her alleged presentation of a fraudulent New York State driver’s license to detectives, though News 12 Long Island reported that specific charge was listed only for Fickbohm in the formal announcement.
Nassau County police have not announced arraignment dates for either defendant as of the Sunday morning report. The investigation identified scams in at least three towns beyond the original Hempstead complaint, and detectives have not stated publicly whether additional victims or properties are under review.
Broader Impact
Third-degree grand larceny under New York Penal Law § 155.35 covers theft of property valued above $3,000 — the $7,000 loss from the Meadowbrook Road victim alone clears that threshold. A conviction carries up to seven years in state prison. Second-degree burglary under PL § 140.25, a Class C violent felony, carries a mandatory minimum of 3½ years and a maximum of 15 years for defendants with prior felony records.