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Asphalt scam hits area
A group of individuals running an asphalt scam have apparently hit Bourbon County.
Area law enforcement agencies are investigating several incidents, which reportedly originated in Barton County, Mo., involving asphalt contractors who are scamming citizens and businesses.
These contractors go door to door offering to lay asphalt at discounted prices. They then lay the asphalt and charge more than the agreed upon amount. Customers have then discovered that the work is substandard. Contractors have promised a four-inch thick layer but oftentimes it is only one-half inch thick. The asphalt is also not the right thickness and grass is growing through in spots.
Victims of the scam are promised a job but work is done improperly and the price is inflated by thousands of dollars. At least six properties in the Barton County area have been targets, a news release said.
Local resident Valerie Graham said she and her husband, Tom, were scammed last week when a group of six or seven individuals who appeared to be legitimate and professional pulled up to their house and offered to pour a driveway for them. The couple ended up being overcharged.
Graham said the men quoted a price, and her son, Ethan, talked them down to a more agreeable sum. The original amount for the work was supposed to be about $4,000, but they received a bill for closer to $10,000 when the men requested to be paid following the work, which was done May 2-3.
Graham said it was becoming clear the work wasn't being done properly, and the man who claimed to be the supervisor asked her if she "could do the figures" for the job as they had no equipment for figuring the price.
"But they didn't stop, they just kept on going," she said.
After laying the driveway, the group left and told Graham they would come back and put on a sealant, which Graham later found could not be applied yet. The men made other false claims and promises in order to get more money out of their target. Graham said they ended up paying another $800 for the sealant.
"They sprayed the driveway, then we found out you couldn't put a seal on it," she said. "They went from telling us the asphalt would last 10-15 years to it would last only one year without a sealant."
Graham said she is concerned about getting the word out to the public about the scammers.
"The price was exorbitant," she said.
Ethan also said he wants to inform people and ask any victims to contact law enforcement.
"I just want to protect people is what I want to do," he said.
Graham said she and her husband did not check the group out at first because they had brand-new equipment and appeared to be a legitimate company. She said the man who appears to be the leader of the group is adept at confusing and misleading the customer, and the men are intimidating.
"The ringleader makes a deal with you and confuses you," she said. "They change their figures."
Graham described the vehicles, which included bright orange trucks, two new asphalt trucks, a trailer and two red pickup trucks.
The Grahams ended up paying about $8,800 for everything, but that amount would have been closer to $15,000 if the price hadn't been talked down, Graham said.
"They gave us a contract, but there was no duplicate; it was just a piece of paper," she said.
Graham said the group comes in the evenings. Some of the asphalt in their driveway is less than one-inch thick, has tire marks on it and is already cracking and crumbling in places.
One of the men produced a business card upon request, but it was a faded car with a company name that was different than the name on the contract.
Bourbon County Undersheriff Bill Martin said Deputy Sheriff Mark Kase is working with the Barton County Sheriff's Office as officers look into the incident.
In Crawford County, there have been at least two businesses along with several citizens who have been scammed by these crews.
Crawford County Undersheriff Dan Peak said no arrests have been made in Crawford County yet, but he has seen more cases start to emerge.
"Quite a few cases are popping up, more people are calling in," he said. "We started investigating this over the weekend. As word starts to spread, more and more people start to call."
The crews come from the Northwest Arkansas area and operate under various bogus business names, including Super Asphalt Paving, Asphalt Paving Construction and Asphalt Paving. They are known to be driving several different vehicles, including a red Chevrolet pickup with a 30-day Arkansas tag, a red Chevy pickup with a large tank used to transport sealant in the bed, a white Chevy crew cab four-door pickup, a red and white Volvo dump truck and a red Sterling dump truck, a news release said.
One suspected crew member, 55-year-old Mark Fletcher, is currently in custody in Barton County for financial exploitation of an elderly person, Peak said.
He added his office is currently making a list of people who may have been victimized. Elderly people appear to be the prime target, but people of various ages are getting duped, and the group is also hitting businesses.
"They're getting business anywhere they can," Peak said. "We're in the information gathering stage and looking out for this group."
Victims of the scam or local residents with information on the scammers are urged to call their local law enforcement agency as authorities are looking for help in nabbing the rest of the scammers.