LAMAR, Mo. —
Authorities in Missouri and Kansas are trying to corner an asphalt paving crew accused of ripping off multiple customers in recent weeks.
“They’re posing as a legitimate asphalt company,” said Undersheriff Dan Peak of the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department in Kansas.
Peak said the crew of about seven or eight men has been going door to door in mostly rural areas and offering to lay asphalt on home driveways or parking areas of businesses at discount prices. But the price is raised once the job is done, and the quality of the work is clearly substandard, he said.
The men typically promise to put down a 4-inch layer of asphalt but wind up laying an inch or less, Peak said.
“In fact, we have word that one of the victims already has grass growing up through the asphalt,” he said. “It’s that thin.”
The Crawford County Sheriff’s Department has heard from three businesses and at least six or seven residents who may have been cheated by the crew, which is believed to have roots in Northwest Arkansas and has been operating under the business name Super Asphalt Paving, according to Peak.
A business near Girard paid the crew $20,000 before realizing that the job that had been performed was decidedly deficient, he said.
“They’re really, really pushy about everything they do, especially with older people,” said Mitchell Shaw, sheriff of Barton County in Missouri, where the same crew is believed to have been operating between April 26 and May 2.
Shaw said his deputies caught one of the men attempting to cash an $8,400 check obtained from an elderly couple on the west side of the county for a substandard job. Mark G. Fletcher, 55, of Spiro, Okla., was arrested May 2 at a bank in Lamar and was charged with financial exploitation of an elderly person. He remains in custody at the Barton County Jail on a $25,000 cash-only bond.
The sheriff said Fletcher seems to have been little more than “a grunt” with the crew, which would pay him $50 to cash the checks it would have customers make out to his name.
Deputy Vernon Ring, who is investigating the case in Missouri, said he has identified five people in Barton County who paid the crew. In a sixth case, a job had been started but was not completed, and no payment was made. In addition to preventing Fletcher from cashing the one couple’s check, the Barton County sheriff’s office stopped payment on a check written by a second victim.
But, Ring said, three alleged victims made payments of $2,500, $5,300 and $12,500 to the crew for substandard work that was performed in a deceptive manner.
Deputies in the two states are sharing information in their investigations. Ring said the crew is believed to have been active in Crawford and Bourbon counties in Missouri before coming to Barton County in late April. He said the group may have returned to Kansas after the arrest of Fletcher, who claimed to have been dropped off at the bank by other members of the crew who then fled when deputies arrived.
Peak said the men were active in Crawford County this past weekend.
The crew is believed to be operating with multiple trucks, including a red Sterling dump truck, a red or white Volvo dump truck, a white Chevrolet crew-cab pickup truck, a red Chevrolet pickup with a sealant tank in the bed, and a red Chevy pickup with a temporary Arkansas license, authorities said.
Help wanted
CRAWFORD COUNTY RESIDENTS who may have had contact with an asphalt paving crew suspected of cheating customers in two states are being asked by authorities to contact the sheriff’s office at 620-724-8274, whether they believe they are a crime victim or not. Residents of Barton County may contact the sheriff’s office at 417-682-5541.
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Asphalt scammers conning residents in rural areas
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