The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office wants to warn area residents about a recent roof repair scam that targeted an elderly Fort Walton Beach resident. The 92-year old victim says three men attempted to cheat him out of more than six-thousand dollars for fake roof work.
The 92-year old reports that the trio arrived at his Newcastle Drive home in a white pick-up truck on December 26th in reference to working on his house, saying he needed to replace his roof vents. They spent several hours at the home and he then gave them a check for 62-hundred dollars. However when he inspected their work, the victim discovered the men had simply spray painted his existing aluminum vents with green paint. The homeowner immediately contacted his bank and stopped payment on the check. A phone number the bogus contractors had given the resident turned out to be a non-working number.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information on this attempted fraud and exploitation of the elderly to contact the agency at 850-651-7400 or Emerald Coast Crime Stoppers at 850-863-TIPS.
