A Baltimore man has been charged with soliciting home-improvement projects from several senior citizens and failing to provide the services he promised, police said Wednesday.
Throughout May, Robert McBride, 44, told five Brooklyn seniors their homes needed work and that if he didn?t fix the damages as soon as possible, they would wind up paying in the future, said Officer Sara Schriver, an Anne Arundel County police spokeswoman.
“The elderly people ? are trusting. They think, ?We don?t want this to be costly in the future,? ” Schriver said.
McBride would take money to buy supplies for the projects, return to the home and perform a minimal amount of work, Schriver said. Then he would ask for more money and disappear, she said.
Police did not disclose how much money was taken from the victims.
The victims eventually called police and showed them checks they had written to McBride, who had identified himself to them as Robert Milton. However, he asked that the checks be made out to Robert McBride, which is how detectives eventually caught him, Schriver said.
McBride was arrested Monday on five counts of theft, acting as a contractor/subcontractor without a license and offering to sell home improvement services without a license.
When entering into a home improvement contract, homeowners should always ask the contractor for a license, photo identification, an operator?s number, an address and references, Schriver said.
Senior fraud is a “huge problem” in Anne Arundel, according to Kristin Riggin, a spokeswoman for County State?s Attorney Frank Weathersbee. The office has recently started providing free seminars to arm seniors in the county against theft and fraud schemes as part of the national Communities Against Senior Exploitation initiative.
