Three Wanted In Home Improvement Scam

Police are looking for three men running a slippery home improvement scam, which bilked an 84-year-old man out of $1,475.

The men recently offered to drench the man’s house in an oily coating, supposedly to protect the paint. According to a police report, they gave him a $200 estimate, and he agreed.

“It just made kind of a shiny sheen all over the house, and they sprayed windows and everything you could think of,” said the victim’s nephew, who didn’t want either of their names used.

He said his uncle’s home needs a new paint job now anyway, and a coat of oil sure wouldn’t be a fix.

The victim left for about 40 minutes to run errands, and when he returned home the three men were done and ready to be paid. But now, they demanded hundreds more.

“They presented him this tremendous, huge bill,”the nephew said. “Of course, he was intimidated, so he gave them the money.”

The victim had a stroke about a year ago, the man’s nephew told police, and because of his age doesn’t like confrontations.

“He’s kind of a bashful person and didn’t know what to do,” the nephew said. “He knew it wasn’t right, but there was three of them. What could he do?”

He began to write a check but had trouble finishing it, so one of the men wrote it out for him.

They didn’t give him a receipt. The nephew found out about the scam on Saturday when he asked his uncle what the slimy residue was all over his plants.

The victim didn’t remember exactly when the crime took place, but it was sometime last week.

The nephew worries the men will return to demand more money.

“Those kind of people know just how to pick on (people),” he said. “It’s kind of sad that people have to prey on other people.”

, DataTimes