A group of men pretend to work for a top-tier roofing company to gain access to homes and cause thousands of dollars in roof damage.
MINNEAPOLIS — At this time of year, the Better Business Bureau warns us to be wary of scammers offering roof inspections or repairs, especially after storms.
But a scam happening right now in the Twin Cities has done particularly bad damage to several homeowners and a local, reputable business.
After living in the same house in Robbinsdale for more than 20 years, James Graham can only shake his head as he looks up at the chaos a group of men have wreaked on his roof in a matter of days.
“I’m just mad at myself,” Graham said. “If you had told me two weeks ago that this was going to happen, I would have laughed in your face. How wrong I would have been.”
Graham says the scam began when a man with a distinctly Irish accent approached him in his driveway and made a reasonable offer to fix a loose clapboard on his upstairs window.
“With a loose shingle, your roof becomes a little vulnerable,” he said. “So I thought for $200 please take care of it.”
But when the man and his crew returned a few days later, things quickly escalated, according to Graham, and the estimate shot through the roof.
“I came home from shopping and found six Irish guys on the roof,” Graham said. “To be honest, I was completely flabbergasted.”
By this point, the team had already begun removing shingles and some of its roofing, he says. They even started showing him wood they claimed was rotting.
“After a few minutes they came in and said the roof is steep and so they had to hire scaffolding,” he said. “And they said they needed $8,500 in cash from me as a deposit.”
He admits he went to his bank and withdrew money to pay them, but after a brief chat with his son he didn’t follow up.
“He pointed out that I was an idiot for withdrawing the money,” Graham said.
He says that served as a reality check, and when the crew arrived to start work the next morning, he decided to double-check the credentials of the company they said they worked for.
“I also asked for a contract and he came up with what appeared to be a homemade copy of something from KeyPrime,” Graham said.
KeyPrime Roofing is a very real, very highly rated company based in the Golden Valley. Graham noticed that the number on the flyer he received didn’t match the number on KeyPrime’s website, so he called Robbinsdale Police and the company directly.
“Our receptionist then reviewed the system and determined that Jim was not a past or current customer of ours,” said Pat Lee, one of the owners of KeyPrime Roofing.
Lee says he and his business partner drove straight to Pat’s house in hopes of finding out who was posing as an employee. He says the crew is already gone, as is much of Graham’s roof.
Pat Lee: “It’s a $25,000-$30,000 project.”
Kent Erdahl: So you put a hole in his roof?
Lee: “A very big hole. Probably a good 10 x 20 hole.”
A few days later they got a call about a woman in New Brighton with a similar story.
“She said someone offered to clean her gutters for $100,” Lee said. “They got on her roof, opened a roof vent, took pictures and told her there was a hole in her roof. They even showed her videos of rotten wood that wasn’t her wood, and they started tearing up wood and clapboards from her house.”
Unfortunately, Pat says the crew also used a fake bill to convince the woman to pay $9,500 in cash to fund the removal of the clapboard and planks. They soon came back with new material and demanded another $30,000 in cash to complete the work.
“She said she didn’t have enough money to apply for a loan,” Lee said. “She called her insurance company on her way to the bank and they called right away and asked us what the hell was going on out there.”
Lee says everything from the fake bill to the Irish accents fitted Jim’s story, which is why they are now working with local law enforcement and the state to investigate.
“Our main goal with KeyPrime is to ensure that the community is no longer impacted,” he said. “And of course we don’t want the KeyPrime name to be presented in that way.[The scammers]maximize damage to make it appear they have a big problem up there, leading the homeowner to withdraw large amounts of money.”
And even if a homeowner like Graham gets smart and doesn’t end up paying them a dime, a lot of damage can still be done.
Graham: “I should have known better. I mean there’s no other way. I don’t want anyone else to have to go through this. Just don’t be stupid like me.”
Erdahl: “I think you’re being a little hard on yourself.”
Graham: “I think I have every right to do so. It has to be someone.”
Jim’s warning is timely because after Thursday’s interview with KARE 11, KeyPrime Roofing said it received another call about the same type of scam in northeast Minneapolis. The woman who called the company had just been approached by a group of men with Irish accents. They distributed the same fake documents and offered to clean her gutter. She told the company she didn’t let her on her roof. Instead, she called the police and contacted the company directly.
According to experts, to avoid being scammed, here’s what you should do:
– DO NOT pay in cash
– Be sure to ask for the state license
– Find out about the company and call to verify the information
– Consider asking your insurance company for an inspection to determine the damage
– DO NOT allow work to begin before a contract is signed. Minnesota law requires a three-day cooling off period.
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