The only news reporting agency in the State that has been following this story is The Shelbyville News - http://www.shelbynews.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=52193&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=&S=1
"A spokeswoman for Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter said Monday there are 17 open complaints into the Bridgers' case, the most recent of which was filed on Nov. 1. "These are all active investigations," said Staci Schneider. "They are being looked into."
When I spoke to the IAG (Indiana Attorney General) in October I was told that "they are waiting to see what Shelby County is going to do". How the heck should that affect any of the complaints filed with the IAG? Especially since the court dates keep getting delayed.
The best we can get is an "Unsatisfactory" with the Better Business Bureau - http://www.data.bbb.org/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=indianapolis/indianapolis/showrpt.html?language=english&bis=y&zid=ZHFqGhJoMl
This latest from the message boards
Scrapper in KY - Creative Keepsakes MB - 11/05/07
Hi ladies, I wanted to warn scrapbookers of this scrapbooking retreat and the scam that is going on. This man's business was shut down by the local government in Geneva, IN, but he is still using his website to book retreats and stealing money from scrappers.
He is currently be investigated by the Shelbyville police. Women are booking their weekend with a $75 deposit then he emails you telling you the "new location isn't ready yet" and send you to a hotel assuring you the accommodations will be the same.
He doesn't have any of what is offered on the website, women become upset, leave and he steals the deposit.
This happened to 8 of us this weekend. We were upset and confronted him about it and he became rude and belligerent. We decided he would pay for one night at the hotel, we would scrap in our rooms and that would be it, we were done with him. Privately the group decided to rent the hotel another night and have our own scrapbooking weekend. Saturday night we found out from a local scrapbooker we met at the scrapbooking store there, that he was a scam artist and was hotel hopping stealing women's deposits and then not paying for the rooms.
There is currently a investigation going on in Shelbyville, IN about him. The local government shut him down and now he is continuing to steal money and hotel hopping only to scam the hotel as well. After we found this out he calls the hotel desk and tells the clerk he knows we are there and this was his party, we owe him money and he's on his way. We ended up calling the police and everything. And his credit card was declined to top it all off.
We didn't investigate this and were way too trusting. We are not the only ones because we overheard him talking to the clerk about the women he has coming for the next several weekends. We are doing what we can to report him but want to get the word out so maybe we can reach the ladies who are scheduled to go in the future. If you are registered, call the deposit a loss and stay away from this scary man.
If you want to read some of the articles online about him, search "old geneva dairy", there's a very scary article about him in the Shelbyville Newspaper also. If you hear anyone talking about this retreat, warn then.
crzy4scrpn - Two Peas Message Board - 11/10/07
Myself and two friends were registered to attend Nov 16-18. When I couldn't get any response from the guy. I got online to try to find some other way to contact him and found way more than that!!!!
Now it all makes sense and I am so glad I found out now instead of going through what the last person went through. He is now in jail for a non related incident, you can read that on Shelbyville news site too along with the incident from previous weekend.
I have filed a report with the Indiana Attorney General'ss office and the FBI www.ic3.gov for Internet scams. I recommend any of you do the same, they were receptive and sounded like they would do something as my friend spoke with them on the phone.
He took my $75.00 deposit too and if enough of us turn him in it will be a felony!
This whole thing seems so crazy and surreal. I feel for the ladies that have gone through this and actually had to interact with this crazy guy. He lied to me on the phone over and over and I am just thankful that I had no personal contact with him because it sounds like he is going off the deep end!.
My friend also contacted CK magazine to see if they could get the word out in bigger fashion since that is where we first saw advertisement for place. Please post on any other scrapbook sites about this so no other ladies have to lose money, time, nor be put in jeopardy with this guy!
3 comments:
I too was one of the trusting scrapbookers...long story, but I did get my money reimbursed to me through my credit card. I copied all newspaper articles and many thing from this website. I filed with many agencies. I am astonished and speechless to understand why he is able to continue to take reservations and is not sitting in jail for fraud.
He is going to jail for a probation violation...
http://www.shelbynews.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=93&ArticleID=53409
So sad. My BF & I attended one of his weekends, right after his divorce and he was such a mess. We had such a great time and couldn't wait to come back the next year. However, the next year (2007) we could not reach him to find out if he was still doing these retreats. I guess I was lucky I was never able to reach him because it sounds like his life really took a turn for the worse after we met him. He was such a nice a guy in 2006.
Post a Comment