Lincolnton residents file police reports after paying workers to repair driveways
Two Lincolnton residents say they paid $500 each and their driveways were left in poor conditions.
LINCOLNTON, N.C. (WBTV) - A Lincolnton resident ed WBTV saying some men stopped by his house and offered to repair his driveway for a discounted price, but he says he was left with a mess and was unable to get back in with the people who did it.
Chris Boyles says two men rang his doorbell and offered to fix up his driveway for $500.
He says they told him to wait 12 hours to drive on it. He says he waited 36 hours, but his tires still left a permanent mark on the surface.
“There was these two gentlemen that said that they had been in my neighborhood resurfacing driveways and would I want mine done,” Boyles told WBTV. “Well, not really, not really.”
After some negotiating, Boyles says he regrets taking them up on the offer.
“I said, well, what is this made up of?” he said. “He said, well, there’s some lime and there’s some sand and we mix it with water and then we have an ingredient that we put in there that helps harden it.”
Boyles says it looked like a mess, and he told them he didn’t want to pay for it.
“He said oh, I’ll come back next week and we’ll clean this up and then it’ll look beautiful,” he said.
He says the men who did the work never returned or answered his phone calls.
This is the same story that an elderly couple living a few miles away shared with WBTV. Their driveway appears to have been left in the same condition.
WBTV called the number on the business card that both of the neighbors were given.
The card says Jimmy Mack of Mack’s Construction, with a phone number out of Augusta, Georgia.
Jimmy Mack told WBTV he did not want to do an interview but denied any wrongdoing, and called the neighbors liars.
WBTV started digging and learned two men by the names of Jimmy Mack and Pete Jude Vincent-Carrol are wanted for questioning by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office in Augusta, Georgia, in connection to a felony theft.
The police report says an 85-year-old paid $500 to have his driveway repaired. After the work, the report says he let one of the men inside for a glass of water, but when he returned to the living room he was gone and his cell phone and a bank bag with $15,000 was missing.
WBTV asked Mack about the alleged crime, and he called it a misunderstanding.
Boyles says the men who worked on his driveway are the same men on the posters out of Richmond County.
He and the elderly couple filed police reports with Lincolnton Police for fraud or forgery.
Boyles says he hopes others won’t make the same mistake he did.
“Don’t trust anybody who comes to your door,” he said. “Tell the citizens of Lincolnton, Lincoln County, and the state, don’t trust everybody. Keep your guard up.”
The Lincolnton police chief says he was not aware of these men prior to these incidents.
Investigators in Richmond County told WBTV they are still wanted for questioning.
Records show there are no ed businesses called Mack’s Construction under these men’s names in the Carolinas or Georgia.
The Better Business Bureau says there are ways you can protect yourself from this happening to you:
- Be wary of unsolicited offers. A lot of these start with random contractors going out of their way to offer you something you never requested.
- Research any company before you hire them. Check with the BBB or do an internet search.
- Get everything in writing. Ask for an estimate in writing before you even discuss payment. Don’t let them start before you have documentation.
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