POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — The Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man accused of operating a bogus roof repair business, and investigators are worried there could be more victims.
Deputies arrested Patrick Gorman after he allegedly swindled an elderly man out of at least $25,000 for unnecessary work and repairs he did not do. The victim is an 88-year-old man whose identity we are protecting.
When the sheriff’s office contacted Ryan Waltz at RK Roofing to look at the roof, he was expecting a costly repair.
“I looked at the invoice, it said he cleaned the downspouts and cleaned the siding. The house that had no siding, had no downspouts. Everything was a red flag,” Waltz said.
The sheriff’s office issued a warrant for Gorman for burglary, exploitation of the elderly and grand theft.
“He basically had tricked the elderly victim into paying him over $8,000 for these repairs,” Brian Bruchey, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office said.
In January, relatives realized something was wrong when they found three unusual checks written to Gorman. He showed up at the victim’s home again and relatives took his picture and contacted the sheriff’s office.
“Now, on the first check, the family said, yeah, that was that was his handwriting, you know, the victim’s handwriting. The other two checks were just the victim’s name. That was the only thing that was his handwriting,” Bruchey said.
Detectives believe there are more people out there that have fallen victim to Gorman’s scheme.
“Oftentimes, people don’t like to report these kinds of crimes because they’re embarrassed that they were taken as a victim, and we understand that. But what we want to do is, if there are more victims out there, we want to investigate those cases,” Bruchey said.
Gorman was arrested in Brevard County. Detectives believe there may be other victims and wants anyone who may have been victimized by Gorman to contact the sheriff’s office.