MINNEAPOLIS — It's that time of year when the Better Business Bureau warns us to watch out for scammers offering roof inspections or repairs, especially after storms.
But one scam happening in the Twin Cities right now has been especially damaging for several homeowners and one local, legitimate business.
After living in the same home in Robbinsdale for more than 20 years, James Graham can only shake his head as he looks up at the mess a group of men made of his roof in just a matter of days.
"I'm just angry at myself," Graham said. "If you told me two weeks ago that this would happen, I would have laughed in your face. How wrong I would have been."
Graham says the scam began when a man with a distinct Irish accent approached him in his driveway with a reasonable offer to fix one loose shingle by 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 by the time the man and his crew returned a few days later, Graham says things escalated quickly and the estimate shot through the roof.
"I came home from getting my groceries to find six Irishmen on the roof," Graham said. "I was gob-smacked to be quite honest."
At that point, he says the crew had already started removing shingles and part of his roof decking. They even began showing him wood that they claimed was rotting.
"After a few minutes they came in and said the roof was steep and therefore they needed to rent scaffolding," he said. "And they said they would need $8,500 in cash from me as a deposit."
He admits that he went to his bank and did withdraw money to pay them, but he didn't follow through with it after a quick conversation with his son.
"He pointed out that I was an idiot for pulling out the cash," Graham said.
He says that served as a reality check, so when the crew arrived to start working the next morning, he decided to double-check the credentials of the business they said they were with.
"I asked to see a contract, too, and he produced what looked like a homemade copy of something from KeyPrime," Graham said.
KeyPrime Roofing is a very real, very highly rated company based in Golden Valley. Graham noticed the number on the flyer he was given didn't match the number on KeyPrime's website, so he called Robbinsdale police and the company directly.
"Our receptionist then checked the system and found that Jim was not a prior customer of ours, nor was he a 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 home, hoping to find out who was impersonating an employee. He says the crew was already gone, and so was a big chunk of Graham's roof.
Pat Lee: "It's a $25,000 to $30,000 project."
Kent Erdahl: "So they put a hole in his roof?"
Lee: "A very big hole. Probably a good 10-by-20 hole."
A few days later, they got a call about a woman in New Brighton with a similar story.
"She said somebody had offered to clean her gutters for $100," Lee said. "They got up on her roof, they opened a roof vent and took photos and told her that she had a hole in her roof. They even showed her videos of rotten wood that wasn't her wood, and they started tearing wood and shingles off her house."
Unfortunately, Pat says the crew also used a fake invoice to help convince the woman to pay $9,500 in cash to cover the shingle and board removal. Before long, they returned with some new materials and then requested another $30,000 in cash to finish the job.
"She said she didn't have that kind of money, that she'd need to go apply for a loan," Lee said. "On her way to the bank, she called her insurance, and they immediately called and asked us what the heck was going on out there."
Lee says everything from the fake invoice to the Irish accents matched Jim's story, so they are now working with local law enforcement and the state to investigate.
"Our main goal, with KeyPrime, is to make sure the community isn't affected anymore," he said. "And obviously we don't want the KeyPrime name being represented that way. (The scammers) are maximizing the damages to make it look like they had a big problem up there, which makes the homeowner pull out large amounts of cash."
And even if a homeowner, like Graham, wises up and doesn't end up paying them a dime, plenty of damage can still be done.
Graham: "I should have known better. I mean, there's no two ways about it. I don't want anybody else to have to go through this. Just don't be as stupid as I was."
Erdahl: "I think you're being a little hard on yourself."
Graham: "I think I have every right to be. Somebody has to be."
Jim's warning is timely, after the interview with KARE 11 on Thursday, KeyPrime Roofing reached out to say it had received another call about the same type of scam in northeast Minneapolis. The woman who called the company had just been approached by a crew of men with Irish accents. They handed out the same fake documents and offered to clean her gutter. She told the company that she did not let them on her roof. Instead, she called police and contacted the company directly.
To avoid a scam, experts say you should:
- DON'T pay in cash
- DO ask to see their state license
- DO research the company and call to verify information
- DO consider asking your insurance company for an inspection to verify damage
- DON'T allow work to begin until a contract is signed. A three day cooling off period is required by Minnesota law.
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