A disturbing discovery

I got a Facebook friend request the other day from a guy in Indiana who did a lot of work on our house there – new porch floors and ceiling, siding work, etc. He and his wife are longtime friends of Maria and he’s a good reliable contractor.

I looked at his Facebook page this morning and concluded that he just j0ined Facebook recently. His wall included a number of people who he “friended” over the last few days. And one name jumped out at me. It was the contractor who ripped us off for about $30,000 on our abortive garage project in the spring of 2007.

I still have a photocopy of the check we gave him for $13,230 on April 20 (Hitler’s birthday), 2007 for building supplies that he presumably purchased for us at Lowe’s. After he quit returning our calls and vanished, we checked with all of the area Lowe’s stores and found no record of a purchase being made in his name or in ours.

We asked the Indiana Attorney General’s Consumer Protection people to go after him, but they declined because there were no other outstanding complaints against him. Two lawyers assured us that we would win any suit we brought against him, but would never collect a dime.

So there he is, with a Facebook page and pictures of himself and his family. And he is apparently continuing to make a living as a contractor, hence his ongoing relationship with our friend.

I thought I had moved on, but this morning’s discovery has stirred up some powerful feelings of animosity and pain. Now I have to figure out what to do with them.