BUCKNER, Mo. — Inside a locked and gated property near Buckner, Missouri, is a home that asphalt built. It belongs to Jerry Alan Sawyer. The registered owner of an asphalt company that has been accused by a Kansas prosecutor of making money by taking advantage of the elderly.
As FOX 4 Problem Solvers discovered, Sawyer doesn’t like to answer his door or his phone.
Sawyer makes his living selling asphalt door-to-door. Customers tell FOX 4 that his standard line is that the asphalt is left over from another job and can be had for a good price.
Ruth Barclay, 81, of Independence, said she made the mistake of taking him at his word. Barclay said she was told the extra load wouldn’t cost her more than $80, but once the work was done, she said the price skyrocketed.
“I about dropped dead when they said $10,000,” Barclay recalled, adding that she was too afraid to say no to the four men demanding the money so she wrote them a check.
Two months later, not only is she out the money, but her new asphalt driveway has so many weeds growing in the cracks, it needs to be mowed.
The attorneys general in both Kansas and Missouri issue warnings every year about asphalt companies that prey on the elderly. But finding the owners of those companies can be tricky. The receipt Mrs. Barclay was given has no company name, no address and no phone number.
She might never have known who was behind her asphalt job, if it wasn’t for her neighbor Dave Mullnix. He saw the workers leave her home and followed them.
“They tried to lose me through a bunch of back roads and jogged all over the place,” Mullnix said. “But it was low-speed chase.”
After all, dump trucks can only move so fast. Mullnix tracked them to Sawyer’s home, which is also the business address for Alan’s Asphalt. Mullnix hopes that information will eventually help Mrs. Barclay get her money back.
“You’ve got a senior citizen there whose husband was five days away from dying, a WWII vet,” Mullnix said. “No retirement income except Social Security, so I feel pretty strongly about taking advantage of this woman.”
It’s not the first time Sawyer’s been accused of taking advantage of a customer. In 2010, the district attorney in Douglas County, Kansas, prosecuted Sawyer for pressuring an elderly couple to pay $8,000 for an asphalt overlay on their driveway. Sawyer eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft, returned $2,000 to the couple and paid an $800 fine.
In addition, The IRS accused Sawyer of hiding much of his income in 2008 and 2009, which was estimated at well over a half a million dollars a year.
“I don’t know why they don’t stop him,” Mrs Barclay said.
But first you have to find him.
