Back in my retail days , just when custom multiroom was starting to get rolling, I had a very well dressed, very well spoken genntleman come into our store. He drove up in a Rolls Royce. We had a great chat, went out to his home multi-million dollar waterfront home to scope it out, and he decided he wanted this high end sound system and then sound everywhere in his home. He wanted to listen to the speakers and amps in his home for a couple of days, and of course seeing $$$$$$$ signs I went along with it and set it all up. (about $30,000 in early eighties) No money passed hands.
A few days later, I called him. No answer..... A few days later, phone disconnected. Went out to the house to snoop around , no one there , no Rolls Royce, not any cars.
Place locked up and no way to see inside.

The Big Guy was taking care of me on this one , cause a month later I got a call out of the blue from a lady who said she owned the home and had rented it to some shyster that had stifffed her and many others and had apparently skipped town.
She suggested I come to the home as she had found some stereo equipment with our company name on it, and that is how she got our phone #. I got out there and all the furnishings had been taken. In the middle of the living room was all my $30K worth of gear!

I bought the lady some flowers.

Come to think of it , I should send her some every year!

Had a recent "event" in the area just last year...

Local paper has a big spread in the Sunday real estate section. All about this high end home that has, besides all sorts of other ultra high end stuff, a fifty seat, dedicated theater room.

Story goes into all kinds of detail about the husband, the cars (Hummer, Ferarri, etc.) and just how much money was spent on the estate.

Just a few weeks later husband is carted off to jail for being a "major" drug dealer....Story now deals with how he has amassed this vast array of "Bling bling", built a multi-million dollar home and yet only reported a taxable income of under fifty thousand....

Street smart, but utterly stupid....

Last year, This gorgeous woman had us retro a few plasmas and surround systems in her home that she had just bought. Single gal, and owned a business that helped disabled kids with speech disorders.
About 3 months later she calls me, sobbing hysterically. She was begging me to take everything back, and refund her the money (about $20K)... I told her that we really couldn't do that. She called back again, even more hysterical, and explained that she was double and triple billing insurance companies for the srevices she was providing for these kids, and she needed to come up with $30K), for a lawyer that day!
She went on to explain that she had made a huge mistake, and that the State, and Insurance people were demanding immediate payback of OVER $300,000 to avoid going off to jail! She said she was going to lose her house, new SAAB, everything.
I told her I was really sorry she got herself into that situation, but there wasn't anything that I could do. A couple days later, I drove by her house on my way home & there was a for sale sign up... Never heard back from her.
It was a real shock, because she had everything going for her, killer looks, well educated... oH WELL...

Thanks DPVA. Thats it.

Watch out for those damn foot doctors.

MP3! = Make Thread Permanent

Fun to read about the real dangers of service work etc.

Not so fun to be in the sitch.

Fortunately my install days were whit collar crime types... And I guess the rest were really good criminals?

One guy with the Trophy wife just finished his ginormous new home with indoor outdoor swimming... 14' ceiling in the huge as hell basement... Surround in the Liv, MBR, 5 classroom size brs, and even the maid quarters... the list of rediculi continues...

Well, he if almost finished the home ... we were all most finished. Paid. and the guy looses it all?

An overpaid "tollway official!" IDIOT of IDOT

We finished the system for the new owner... a newborn baby catcher?... Was he any less of a criminal? I don't think so.

All I really know is that each of us who sold to Mafia types should watch their backs... THANKS GUYS!

The one sweet old man a "MT" was a (the) guy with his had cleany cut off at the wrist?

hmmmm...?

scoop city,

I'll bet you spent a few sleepless night over that!!! Good ending though!

rguy,
In the mid 70's I managed a small hi fi shop in Tacoma... Lovely Tacoma!!!
The guy at the record store next door (twice in two months), had guys come in and put a shotgun to his head, and escorted him back to the safe! The dry cleaner on the other side of our store had his head blown off for $50 out of the till...about a month after the record store's last hold-up. We lucked out somehow.

One day, the wife of a customer came in wanting to return a subwoofer, satellite system the husband bought a few days earlier. I asked why? She just said she didn't want it, and needed the money really badly.
I looked it over to see if it was scratched up or damaged.
The grille cloth was black, but it looked like someone spilled something on it... Looked like cherry cola or Pepsi... I could see where the spilled stuff had been hastily wipoed off of the wood portions of the speakers. I just assumed a shook-up can of soda was opened up and sprayed the speakers.
After hemming and hawing a bit, I eventually gave her a partial refund.
That night on the news was a story about how this same womans' husband comitted suicide via a gun to the head in their living room.
Well, the next day the guys and I took a little closer look at the speakers... It was dark red, and a little crusty... (his D.N.A.)... Really creeped us out, as we had all worked with the guy just a few days earlier, and he seemed like this totally happy upbeat guy.

I was happy to get out of Tacoma as well...

Once in our Car Stereo Bay, our installer was under the dash removing a deck... Up under the dash were these big fat bags of white powder jammed up under the dash...
The customer (who was one scary looking dude), was over in the waiting area watching the guy like a hawk... He just pretended like he never saw anything...

I had a client spend about 150k with me, paid it all in cash. 2 years later I get a call to come up and talk, he is selling the house and the new owner doesn't want to buy all the gear. I get there, look around, every room except the theatre area has been shot up. This was a 7,000 sq ft home, there had to be at least 100 bullet holes in each room. 60" sony XBR's had been kicked in, what a mess.