Don’t pay up front — law enforcement
Mariel Williams
editor@mitchellnews.com
As predicted five months ago when disaster struck, the process of recovering from Hurricane Helene (downgraded to a tropical storm after slowing down over land) has attracted scam artists and bad actors.
“I just want to make sure everybody’s aware of a lot of these groups of people that are coming in to help all these residents here in town, we’ve been dealing with a lot of scams,” Police Chief Kasey Cook told the Spruce Pine Town Council at a February meeting. “There’s been a lot of good people, volunteering, coming up; there’s also been a lot of people coming up with fake names, fake businesses.”
One particular individual who has allegedly been responsible for scams in multiple counties was arrested by Spruce Pine police. Noah Daniel Garrett of Conover was allegedly offering false services under the name “John Griffin” and claimed to be the owner of a business called “Lakeside Construction Services.” According to the police department Garrett is not affiliated with that company.
Garrett has been charged with obtaining property by false pretense. Anyone with additional information regarding Garrett is asked to contact Detective Michael Burleson at (828) 765-2233.
Garrett, who was allegedly offering storm cleanup and grading services, reportedly called himself “John Griffin” on Facebook in some of these instances.
Mitchell County Sheriff Donald Street said that Garrett is also charged with similar crimes out in the county as well, and that there are additional charges coming from as far away as Catawba County.
“The crimes that my office is seeing, the scammers that are … coming out and saying that they’ll do this job for so much money, you’ll pay them and then you’ll never see them again,” Street said. “Or if you do see them, they do a very limited amount of work, and now you’ve lost your money.”
Cook encouraged storm victims to be wary of unknown contractors offering repair services, especially those who ask for payment up front.
“I would never give anybody $12,000 up front like some people do, or $30,000, but I just want all the residents of Spruce Pine to understand that, you know, if there’s somebody that comes up and wants to help you, that’s fine, but do a little research,” he said. “If you’ve got questions, there’s nothing wrong with calling us — we’ll find out who they are, if that’s who they are — but we have a big problem right now with this.”
Street agreed that up-front payments can be a problem.
“At all costs, try to avoid paying up front,” the sheriff said. “I know that sometimes you’re going to have to pay for maybe some of the materials but be very cautious because that is whenever a lot of people’s getting scammed.”
Street said researching contractor’s previous work and checking references could be helpful.
“Try to deal with your local people and also your reputable companies that you could check into,” he said.
Cook also said that legitimate rebuilding efforts are being targeted for equipment theft.
“(There’s) a lot of stolen equipment,” he said. “Riding around, probably the majority of the heavy equipment you see on these trailers riding through here, they’re probably stolen.”
Cook noted that this kind of problem was predicted by the disaster recovery professionals who came to Mitchell County right after the storm hit at the end of September.
“We’re getting hammered by it,” he said. “We’re trying to take every case we can.”
Cook urges the community to be prepared for the threat of dishonest behavior.
“People just need to be aware of what’s going on,” he said. “A lot of these elderly people get taken advantage of, and I don’t want to see that happen.”
Public Works Director Travis Phillips noted in the Town Council meeting that at least one piece of stolen equipment the police department was able to find within 30 minutes.
“The moral of the story is, don’t leave the key in it, either,” interim Town Manager Richard Canipe added.