OK, Long sad story. My 80 year old widowed neighbor "M." gets the classic paving scam 2 years ago. Blaine Cooper shows up, says he 'was paving in the neighborhood, and noticed your driveway needed repair' offers to fix some potholes in his driveway. "M." says o.K. (but does not ask the price, thinking $100-$300) Blaine goes to work with his 'son' dumps 3 or 4 bags of cold patch down, tamps with hand tamper, seal coats out of a sealer can, less than one hour latter tells "M." he is done, wants $2500 (this is -$50 worth of material)!"M." has a mini-heart attack. Blaine just made more of a mess than improvement to the drive. "M."' figures he can negotiate with him pay him and just get rid of him, but Cooper is clever. Starts part 2 of the classic paving scam 'Hey mister, you know what you really need is a new driveway. I'll do a completely new driveway for $6,000 /-, and credit you the $2500 against it. But... You're going to need to pay me upfront for the asphalt to lock in the price'."M." is intimidated and goes to Bank, pays Blaine mostly in cash. Part 3 of classic paving scam (this is saved for only the most helpless of victims), a few weeks latter he shows up unannounced w/his 'Dad' same story, 'we were just in the neighborhood' (he lives 70 miles away).'Dad' says 'you know for a quality job in order to fix these dips here you really need more asphalt, but that's only about $3,000 exta.' "M." negotiates and gives him /-$2,500 cash and says 'I'm not giving you any more more money until you start work'. Wanna take bets now on a work start date?
I find out 4-6 mos. Latter. I call around and visit to every asphalt plant (I am a G.C.), Blaine Cooper is on the "Do not load list" at every plant in Westchester & Putnam, even for cash payment so he is not able buy material to pave in those counties. (And, no you can't haul asphalt 90 miles from another plant even in a heated truck body because it will get hard). I google him, he was out on bail for similar offense in Dutchess done to an old woman. I took "M." to town Police roughly 6 months after B-C was last given money and PD tell us this is a civil matter. Worst still, while in "M.'s" house one guy distracts him in conversation while the other guy asks to use the bathroom. The guy is gone for like 20mins. Casing the place. This happens twice. Nothing known missing but who knows, unless it was something big he wouldn't miss it. If he rolls in on "M. S" property now he gets locked up for trespassing, but he is still free to work his thievery in other towns. "M." is out $8,500, no driveway and little recourse. Don't get taken in!
P.S. Don't rush to judgement on "M" he is a retired engineer, but he was old and alone with two intimidating guys. The above narrative was condensed by me and the scam in it's original form was very slick.
0 comments