Joe imagined he had found a kindred spirit last week.
The young man before him spoke with an Irish accent and told Joe he had come from Ireland. Joe’s family immigrated to this country from Ireland.
“We hit it off,” said Joe [not his real name]. “I trusted him.”
Joe, 83, had seen the man outside his house the day before but didn’t answer the doorbell. This time he was outside when the red-haired man approached. The man said his company was doing work in the Gaspee neighborhood and he had noticed a crack in the foundation of Joe’s house. He handed Joe a flyer with the name of an Attleboro construction company and pictures of their work. It turns out the company is legitimate; however, the man claiming to work for it was an imposter.
The man pointed to the crack and told Joe he’d better pay attention to it. Joe is familiar with cracks in the foundation and has fixed them himself. This time he thought he’d let someone else do it. He asked what it would cost. The man told him $4,000 and said he didn’t expect to get paid until the job was completed. Joe thought it was expensive, but he signed the paperwork and told the man to do the job.
The next day a couple of laborers showed up and started digging around his foundation. The man showed up, too. The crew was also working on the stairs of the house across the street.
The price more than doubles
Then Joe got the bad news. The man said that their preliminary work revealed the damage was really serious and he would need $9,500 to proceed. What’s more, he wanted the money in advance.
Joe questioned having to pay until the work was completed. The man insisted he needed the money right away in order to buy special equipment. Joe wrote him a check. The foundation work continued. Joe heard banging but couldn’t imagine what was happening.
That day the man called again and said sections of the foundation were collapsing and fixing it would cost $89,500. Joe was aghast. He told the man he didn’t have the money and would need to get a homeowner’s loan. What about the $9,500 he had already paid? he asked. The man stuck to $89,500, but Joe talked him down to $80,000. The man arranged to come the next day for the money. Joe looked at his foundation and found that sections of it had been chiseled out.
By now Joe was having second thoughts about his “kindred” spirit. He stopped in at police headquarters with copies of his supposed “contract” and talked to an officer who told him everything looked OK.
Everything was not OK
Joe proceeded to Lowe’s to pick up some items. Before leaving, he got a call from Warwick police. He agreed to meet them at his house within the half-hour on Friday, March 28. That’s when he learned they had been tracking a home-repair scam for some time. The police told him this was much bigger than Warwick and possibly involved international players.
Soon after, Joe told former Ward 1 City Councilman Robert Cushman, who reported the scam on his website, The Taxpayers Spin. Cushman said he’d received more than 70 responses to the posting from people who claimed they had been scammed too, some by as much as $100,000.
As instructed by police officers and two men from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Joe did as told when he got a call from the man. The man identified himself and the amount of money that was to be handed over.
Joe looked outside. The Gaspee neighborhood, near Salter Grove Memorial Park, was packed with police and unmarked cars.
The Warwick Beacon also received calls from residents who witnessed Friday’s commotion. Eyewitnesses noted that the alleged scammer’s work crews fled on foot when the authorities arrived, leaving behind their vehicles and other belongings.
When a Beacon staff member arrived and approached two men who appeared to be law enforcement, one wearing a mask and one with his weapon visible on his waistband, the two refused to identify what agency they represented and suggested checking with Warwick police before walking briskly to their unmarked cars and driving off.
A Warwick police detective left “Joe’s” home and spoke with the Beacon. According to Detective Matt Smith, he was conducting a fraud investigation as a local component of a Homeland Security Investigations joint task force. He referred any additional comment to his officer in charge. He had no additional information on the men who had been lingering across the street and appeared to be law enforcement.
Warwick Police Maj. Andrew Sullivan confirmed Smith’s details. According to him, Homeland Security is the lead agency on the investigation. “The primary purpose of the investigation is a scam targeting elderly homeowners,” he said.
When asked about the work crews who fled, he noted that this was not an immigration enforcement matter. Warwick police did not pursue any of the people who fled. “That was incidental to the primary investigation,” he said. “No one was taken into custody [related to immigration].” Sullivan did acknowledge that the suspect was known to hire day laborers.
On Tuesday, the Beacon reached out to ICE via email for more details.
“We are not able to comment on ongoing investigations,” replied Kate Pote, spokesperson and public affairs specialist, Homeland Security Investigations, New England Field Office.
Too late to stop payment on check
Joe said police told him the man had been arrested and was being held. Joe called to cancel his check, but the bank told him it had been cashed. He said he wanted his story to be told to warn others but not to use his name or address for fear of retribution from some gang whether in this country or from abroad.
Over the weekend, Joe’s son and neighbors responded to his plight. They patched foundation holes and applied a protective barrier of tar. All that remained to be done was filling in around the foundation with cracked stone to improve drainage.
On Tuesday, Warwick police identified the contractor now detained by federal authorities in this case as John O’Brien, 48, an Irish national with no known local address. No information was available about where he is being held.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here