03/09/2015

Scams

 

Over the weekend Deputy Joey Davis was patrolling rural areas around the Dierks area and noticed that a group of individuals and vehicles from out of town were at a residence paving a small area of a driveway. These vehicles matched vehicles described by complainants/victims in recent scams and forgery cases in our area. We get these type complaints periodically that come through our area and offer certain jobs, (paving driveways, pressure washing homes, roofing, and other construction type services) but leave without finishing, or provide a very poor or low quality service, after making the home owner believe they will be getting a professional or high quality job.

 

Davis made contact with the leader on the job and got contact information. Davis then learned of several residences in the area that paid this person over ten thousand dollars to pave their driveways. 

 

Davis contacted Investigator David Shelton whom assisted Davis in the many reports of these scams. Davis and Shelton were able to make contact with a person from Texarkana who was the leader of this construction group about the several complaints. By acting very quickly, Davis and Shelton were able to recover over ten thousand dollars total for area residents whom had been scammed by this group.

 

In almost all cases a representative from this construction group will stop at a home and tell the home owner that his crew just finished a “big” job nearby and has materials left over from that job. He then will provide a service that turns out to be of far lesser quality than understood by the home owner. I would like to caution the public of these type scams and ask that you question these type construction crews. Quality contractors will not mind giving references or get upset when you have questions. It is evident that these groups prey on elderly residents, or those that or not medically or physically able to assure the service they receive is the service they agree to.

 


Sheriff Bryan McJunkins