Asphalt scammers reported in the county

The Washington County Sheriff?s Office is investigating a recent asphalt scam in the county. Washington County Sheriff Jerry Dunbar said he has received calls from Riverside residents about a group of people purporting to sell asphalt but who engage in fraudulent business practices.

This group, which sometimes goes by the company name ?Fat Boy,? was spotted in the county Monday and as recently as Tuesday morning in Hills. Dunbar said they approached a woman in Hills and tried to sell her asphalt. Before the woman signed the agreement with them, they started pouring asphalt and told her that she owed them money since they had already started the work. She declined the agreement and the crew left before she could learn their license plate information.

Dunbar said the crew typically picks a house at random and informs the occupant that it has leftover asphalt it would be willing to apply to the occupant?s driveway. The crew always demands to be paid upfront. Dunbar said that sometimes they will apply colored gravel or even leftover asphalt millings to the driveway. They tell the occupant they have to finish the work another day. Sometimes they come back and sometimes they don?t.

The crew is known to have a pickup truck with lights on top and a skidloader. Dunbar said the crew also sprays water on the asphalt to make it look good. He said their equipment makes them appear to be a genuine business. However, he said the asphalt they apply is very poor quality and that it crumbles soon after application.

?They?re ripping people off,? the sheriff said. ?People are not getting what they?re paying for.?

This group has been reported in Riverside, south of Washington and at a house on Old 92 (W64). The crew in Riverside was driving a blue 1991 Chevrolet C1500 pickup and a white 1995 International trailer. Dunbar said they have Iowa license plates. Anyone who sees these vehicles or the crew operating them is instructed to call the safety center at 653-2107.

The crew visited a house on Old 92 Tuesday and offered to pour asphalt on the driveway. The female occupant told the crew she couldn?t agree to anything until she talked with her husband. The crew said they would call back. The Sheriff?s Department prepared to do a sting operation after learning of this encounter but the asphalt crew never returned to the residence.

Dunbar said a legitimate asphalt crew would probably not demand to be paid upfront. Not only that, but a legitimate business with leftover asphalt would be working somewhere in town and not show up out of nowhere.

Dunbar said this year?s crew under investigation is the same one that visited Muscatine County last year. This company is using the same fake business name as the one in Muscatine County. The authorities in Muscatine County apprehended the asphalt workers but were only able to secure a misdemeanor charge relating to a violation of contract law.

This sort of scam has been going on for a long time, Dunbar said. He remembers a similar scam the very first day he was on the job 22 years ago. The county and the city confiscated three dump trucks, two road graders, several trailers and a roller from a fraudulent asphalt crew. In fact, one of the dump trucks the city still uses was obtained in that bust.

A similar but independent scam has been reported in Johnson and Benton counties. Dunbar said one incident involved an asphalt crew who told an elderly man it would charge $360. The man gave the crew a check for $360, but when the crew took it to the bank it added a zero at the end and was able to walk away with $3,600 in cash. Another scam was reported in which an asphalt crew threw down some tar and pea gravel on 100 feet of driveway and charged $12,000. Dunbar said the group in Johnson and Benton counties is probably a different group from the one going through Washington County since the two groups use different scamming methods.

Washington Police Chief Greg Goodman said he is aware of the asphalt scams in the county but so far the police have not gotten involved because there have been no reports of it occurring within the city. He said the police monitor door-to-door salesmen to ensure they have the appropriate permits.