A Fort Worth contractor was charged with felony theft on July 8 after allegedly failing to complete a repair job.
Michael Eric Haefner, 48, was arrested on Monday by the Parker County Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office said a woman claimed she hired Freedom Remodeling LLC for a large renovation job to her home in May 2022 to repair damage caused by a water leak. She was quoted a total price of $23,390.04 by a company representative, who took her initial payment of more than $18,000.
However, she reportedly did not hear from the company for several months. After she made numerous attempts to contact the company, a representative finally started the repair work in August 2022, but the woman claimed that minimal work was done, and no one returned to complete the job.
The victim reported to police that the company made several excuses for not completing the work.
She then requested a refund in September 2023. Three days later, the company representative reportedly contacted the woman, telling her he no longer worked for the company. He recommended that she reach out to the owner, identified as Haefner.
“Haefner then reassured the victim he would complete the job and issue a refund, but again gave excuses as to why the job was not completed and eventually was unreachable for several months,” according to the press release.
The victim contacted Haefner again. He reportedly told her she needed to speak with the former employee about the issue. After that, Haefner ceased all further contact with the woman.
She then filed a report with the Parker County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators obtained a subpoena for company records and determined that the woman’s payment was taken, the job was not finished, and Freedom Remodelin LLC owed her more than $9,000, the press release stated.
The sheriff’s office then obtained a warrant before arresting him on July 8 on a felony charge of theft of property. Haefner has refuted the allegations against him, stating, per Fox 4 KDFW, “In 27 years in this business, I have never stolen a penny from my clients.”
In nearby Dallas, fraud offenses are a continuing problem. So far this year, 1,245 instances of fraud have been reported, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard. Last year, a total of 2,525 fraud offenses were reported.
A chronic shortage of officers has hampered the Dallas Police Department’s efforts to fight property crimes, including fraud offenses. The department only has around 3,000 officers, although a City analysis recommended that roughly 4,000 are needed to patrol a city the size of Dallas.
In addition, the DPD was only allotted a budget of $654 million this fiscal year, far less than other high-crime cities like New York City and Chicago.