UES renter says Elliman brokers made her life a nightmare

An Upper East Side woman is suing a pair of brokers from Prudential Douglas Elliman who she claims made her life a nightmare by getting her fired from her job, breaking into her apartment and taking all her possessions, when she couldn’t pay her rent after becoming a victim of identity theft, the New York Post reported. “They terrorized me,” said Barbara McGill, describing the behavior of brokers Stefani Pace and Avraham Lasri. McGill, an architect who moved to the city from Chicago, signed a lease in June to sublet a one-bedroom apartment at 19 East 65th Street. She later discovered that her two checks totaling $6,400 — her first month’s rent and one month’s security — had bounced because she had become a victim of identity theft and had insufficient funding. After McGill produced a letter from her bank stating that her accounts had been frozen, Pace — whose father, Paul Foster, owns the apartment she sublet — allegedly became angry that she couldn’t pay and launched a campaign to label her as a deadbeat, after which she lost her job. McGill said she stayed in the apartment until June 28, when she returned home and found her belongings and her dog gone, and the lock changed. Lasri, who said he is planning to countersue, said he believes that McGill made up the story about someone stealing her identity and that “she’s just playing the victim,” the Post says. [Post]