Elderly woman scammed into paying $64,000 for fake roof repairs

TYLER, Texas (KETK) — According to our news partner KETK, a man was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly tricking an elderly Tyler woman into believing she needed more than $60,000 worth of roof repairs. According to an arrest affidavit from the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, on March 21 deputies received a report of an elderly woman who had been lied to and tricked by suspects, Levy Lee and his accomplice, about a roof repair that was not needed at her home in Tyler.

The report said that the victim ended up giving Lee six checks and $14,000 in cash totaling $64,000 for the work they told her needed to be done. The victim had a contractor come out to her house and inspect the “damages” that Lee and his accomplice said the roof had.

The contractor told her Lee had lied to her, all Lee and the accomplice did was paint roofing tiles around an alleged “rotted chimney flute.”

The victim met Lee and his accomplice when they came up to her house and told her that her roof was “unstable” and that when they get on the roof and jumped, they would “sink a little,” showing her where a soft spot was. The victim said that this “scared her.”

“The contractor went inside the attic, walked on the roof and did not observe any of the issues Lee and [his accomplice] told her she had,” the affidavit said. “Lee and [his accomplice] did not do anything new, all they did was make a hole in the roof and patch it up.”

The affidavit said the contractor observed Lee and his accomplice used $7 worth of material inside the attic, including two-by-fours and plywood. With $64,000, people would be able to get four new roofs, according to the contractor.

The elderly woman’s previous roofer advised that when he repaired her roof two years ago, he did not see any of the “issues” Lee and his accomplice told her she had.

The document said that deputies could clearly see the “work” Lee and his accomplice performed on her roof that appeared to be damaged, sunk in and poorly covered with roofing tiles.

“The [accomplice] did all the talking and Lee did not say anything at all,” the victim said. “The [accomplice] insisted the checks to be made out to Lee because he was the financial guy.” Lee was arrested for elderly financial abuse and is being held in the Smith County Jail while his accomplice is not in jail booking at this time.

His accomplice has not been arrested.