TOLEDO, Ohio — If you've been to a Toledo Mud Hens game, you've likely seen where the team celebrates a hometown hero for their service.
And if you've been to a game this summer, you might have seen U.S. Air Force veteran Roger Bowers.
In the 1950s, Roger Bowers served during the Korean War. The United States had bases in the desert.
"Morocco was where I was at. I think I was about 50 or 60 miles away from the Sahara Desert," Bowers said.
But life is a little more simple for the 90-year-old nowadays.
"My dad is going to be 91 in a few weeks, and he does have Alzheimer's," Pam Shanteau, Roger's daughter, said.
Despite approaching 100 years old, Bowers still takes care of his home. He tends to his garden and even climbs a ladder to clean out his gutters.
So when an opportunity literally came knocking to fix his driveway, he didn't want to pass it up.
"I got a call from my dad and he said 'you need to speak to this young man,'" Shanteau said.
That young man was 45-year-old David S. Broadway.
"Said he had some leftover material that he could put down and make our driveway nice and my first and only question was, 'how much?' And he said '300.' 'Okay,' I said, that sounds fine," Shanteau said.
She later learned that Broadway made her father write a check for $4,200.
When it comes to the work done on the driveway, Shanteau said there was stone put down. But "it looks like s***," she said.
Our 11 Investigates team thought Broadway sounded familiar, and it turns out we were right.
WTOL 11 aired a story in 2007 about Broadway with a very similar story.
The story included Mildred Kuhn, who told WTOL 11 that David S. Broadway came to her door and offered to work on her driveway. Kuhn said he offered her $2 a foot, but instead charged her $2 an inch. It ended up costing Kuhn a grand total of $1,972 when it was originally quoted as only $200. Kuhn said he introduced himself as part of Extreme Asphalt and Paving.
Shanteau said Broadway was clear on a $300 price tag, not $4,200.
11 Investigates learned that a year prior to Kuhn's story in 2006, Broadway was charged with theft from an elderly person, a fourth degree felony. He pleaded no contest.
The crimes didn't stop in Ohio, though. Five years later in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Broadway's name was on a criminal complaint with another, similar story.
It states that Broadway knocked on the door of an elderly couple's home and offered to work on their roof for only $44. The victim wrote a check for $44, but Broadway altered it to $4,400.
When he tried to cash the check, there were insufficient funds.
When police went to the bank to ask about the money, Broadway cashed a check for $2,460 from another elderly person the day before. He went to prison for those crimes.
Fast forward again to 2019 and back to Ohio, Broadway was accused of ripping off a 101-year-old. He promised her a price of $140 for tree trimming and then wrote a check for $1,400 after the woman already signed it.
On the Pennsylvania criminal complaint 11 Investigates obtained, we found Broadway's Ohio driver's license number and it matches the one listed on the back of Rogers' cashed $4,200 check.
"This is what really burns my biscuit, is when an actual human being has no problem scamming a person face to face," Shanteau said. "He had no problem giving my dad that invoice and taking his check."
There are multiple telephone numbers connected to Broadway. From Rogers' receipt to online search, our team couldn't seem to find one to get through to him.
11 Investigates also left a voicemail and sent an email to one of Broadway's family members in hopes of reaching him, but we haven't heard back.
Broadway shouldn't be able to drive to homes right now because his driver's license is suspended. He was charged with drunk driving in July.
Also, the door-to-door sales he does are technically illegal. Lane Montz, the president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau, said this is because of the Green River Ordinance, which prohibits people from doing door-to-door sales or solicitation without the homeowner's prior consent.
11 Investigates wanted to know if door-to-door scams are common. They are one of the oldest scams in the book, Montz said.
He said if someone does come to your door trying to sell you a product or service, ask yourself a couple of questions:
- Is this something I really need?
- If this is a legitimate business, is this really how I want to purchase the product or service?
Turning down a salesperson face-to-face is also more difficult than hanging up on a sales call.
"It is emotional to have someone at your front door putting a little pressure on you to make a purchase or make a donation," Montz said. "It could be legitimate, but if they are a scammer they are going to use higher pressure sales. If you're starting to think emotionally and you're starting to feel like you have to make this purchase now, that's kind of a red flag."
He suggests trying to think rationally, not emotionally.
It's not just older people that get targeted by home improvement scams, either. Younger homeowners and people who just recently bought a home are also targets.
Montz said people will come and offer to do services, like a driveway, for a cheaper price. Then they will only do half the job or nothing at all.
Now, Bowers, a hometown hero, is left with a new battle.
"I just want my dad's money returned. We're not rich," Shanteau said.