A Colorado Springs contractor was caught on camera smashing up a bathroom he’d remodeled after claiming that the customer hadn’t paid up. In a now-viral video, the man hammers away at a shower he completed, saying “we put weeks into this, thousands of dollars into this.” The customer, however, has a different version of events and is none too pleased with the damage the contractor caused to her home.
- Amber Trucke says she was going to pay up. Talking to local news affiliate KRDO, Trucke said she had already paid Dream Home Remodels of Colorado $3,330 out of the $7,555 owed for the job to rebuild her bathroom shower. However, the job wasn’t completed, hence the reason she hadn’t yet settled the bill.
- The contractors still had work to do. Trucke said that in addition to fixing two ceiling fans and working on the back door, she was also unhappy on how the work on the shower was completed and wanted to make sure the plumbing actually worked before she was out even more money.
- She just wasn’t wowed. Trucke wanted to give the contractors on the job the benefit of the doubt but at that point, she wasn’t all that impressed with the work they’d done. “I wanted to be wowed and I wasn’t wowed,” she said. “But I knew she was coming back Friday to clean things up and I figured maybe I’d be more impressed then. So I was not going to pay them until I saw the actual finished product.”
- The contractor lost it when she refused to pay up. In the video, a woman, presumably Trucke, can be heard saying, “Sir, please stop. Please stop.” The contractor, identified as Terry James Gregory, replied: “Is somebody going to pay me?” He then went on to add: “Let me tell you something. No contractor in the state of Colorado will fix that when they found out that I took it back because she refused to pay me. No one.”
- The damage in Trucke’s home now goes beyond the bathroom. As she explained, she’s still in a state of shock and is also out $3,300 as a result of the contractor’s actions. Not only that, but the drywall in the next room is now cracked because of his violent destruction.
- Jordan Cazares, who co-owns Dream Home Remodels with Gregory, has issued a statement. “After several weeks of work for a customer, communication broke down at the end of a project. There was no displeasure expressed, and we proceeded to ask for payment on the project by the end of the day. Communication broke further after that and resulted in our company repossessing a tile shower. We regret that this contract went sour.” He added: “It has never happened before and is not something that is made regular practice. There was several other projects included in the contract that she is also unwilling to pay for, including a vanity, mirror, light fixture, 2 ceiling fans, plumbing work, fixing rotten framing in her walls, and an exterior door replacement.”
Police are said to be investigating.
