A Long Beach woman notorious for allegedly cheating would-be tenants out of security deposits has been charged with stealing nearly $48,000 from more than a dozen victims.
Since at least 2024, local renters have been warning about Anne Bergstedt-Jordanova. They spread her name across social media and contributed their stories to a website that documented her alleged schemes.
Then, on Oct. 31, based on the accounts of 14 separate victims, a judge issued a warrant for her arrest on 15 charges each of grand theft and obtaining money by false pretenses. (One victim, according to charging papers, had been scammed twice.)
In court on Monday, 40-year-old Bergstedt, wearing a jail-issued shirt and pants, cried quietly from a glass holding area as she pleaded not guilty to the charges.
At the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Nick Liddi said Bergstedt stole $1,500 to $4,000 at a time from her victims, who responded to her fake apartment listings. After the renter sent money to secure the apartment, Bergstedt would cut off communication and keep the money, Liddi said.
Lilia Miranda told the Long Beach Post that’s almost exactly what happened to her.
Upon first impression, Miranda said, Bergstedt appeared trustworthy.
“She seemed really normal about it, like it was all legit,” Miranda said. After an in-person tour of the 350-square-foot alternate dwelling unit on Cerritos Avenue, Miranda said she signed a lease and sent $4,000 for the first month’s rent and a security deposit.
But as the move-in date approached, Miranda said Bergstedt made excuse after excuse about why she couldn’t pick up the keys.
After Bergstedt claimed to be out of town for the Fourth of July, Miranda said she went hunting through her Instagram to confirm her suspicions that Bergstedt was lying. There, according to Miranda, were photos clearly showing Bergstedt was still in Long Beach.
Miranda said she texted Bergstedt, telling her she was heading to the apartment to confront her and demand her money back; she soon received $4,000 through CashApp “from a completely different name” and received a text from Bergstedt claiming she had to fly out of the country to attend her sister’s funeral.
This didn’t sit right with Miranda, who’d begun to suspect Bergstedt didn’t own and had no right to rent out the unit on Cerritos Avenue.
According to David Haas, Bergstedt was actually a tenant there.
Haas said his company, Ernst and Haas, managed the property and had already been in a disagreement with Bergstedt, trying to get her to clean up after or get rid of a pig she kept as a pet.
Bergstedt, instead, sought publicity, telling the Long Beach Post at the time that it was a service animal she needed to help manage seizures and bipolar disorder. Haas said Bergstedt’s story inspired a wave of backlash, including harassing calls aimed at him and his employees. He decided to let the pig issue lie.
Then, last November, Bergstedt stopped paying rent and “vanished,” Haas said. This was around the same time that the Long Beach Police Department says they started investigating her.
Court records show they tracked her to an address in Taft, roughly 25 miles southwest of Bakersfield. buut her arrest ultimately came in Long Beach, when officers took her into custody last week near the intersection of Long Beach Boulevard and 15th Street, according to jail records. She was booked on conspiracy to commit grand theft and was initially held on $375,000 bail.
Court records show that the detective working the case requested she be held without bail because Bergstedt had “used a chemical agent against a victim when confronted about stolen funds.”
In court Monday, Bergstedt and her public defender sought to convince a judge she was not a danger or a flight risk.
Through tears, Bergstedt said she cares for 14 special needs or geriatric animals. Her public defender asked a Long Beach judge to release her while her case proceeds so she can care for them.
Judge Christopher J. Frisco responded by lowering her bail from $375,000 to $150,000 and ordering her due back in court on Dec. 3.
Miranda said she was happy to hear Bergstedt is facing charges.
“I genuinely thought I was good at reading people, but no, she got me too,” Miranda said.