Chimney Sweep Nightmare Almost Costs Man Thousands: Police

NEWTON, MA - A Newton man said he was almost the victim of a scam involving a bogus chimney sweep and repair company, police said.

The homeowner said he got a phone call asking if his chimneys had been cleaned recently, police said. Since the man hadn’t had his chimneys serviced in some time he scheduled for the company to come over for an inspection, he told police.

A little before Thanksgiving the man spoke with someone who claimed to be the owner of the company and scheduled a cleaning, according to police.

Two men who had “Long Island accents” showed up in a truck with New York license plates on the day of the cleaning, police said.

The workers cleaned two chimneys and were paid for their work and given a deposit to return and clean the remaining two chimneys, police said.

The men returned twice more and told the homeowner since his chimneys were old the “caps” needed to be replaced and he needed to pay more money, police said. The homeowner agreed and scheduled a date for the caps to be replaced, according to police.

Only one man showed up on the day the work was scheduled for. The lone ”chimney sweep” said they needed to create custom caps and perform additional repairs that would cost a total of $12,000 dollars, police said. The alleged scammer said this price was a “discount,” according to police.

The homeowner did not agree to the price or the additional work, police said, and reported the strange scenario to police.

“I advised that this sounded like similar scams in the area, where initial services are provided, and once securing payment for larger recommended work, the company no longer replies to the customer,” an investigating officer wrote in the police report.

The homeowner said his wife had contacted the Better Business Bureau in New York (where the company claimed to be from) but they said they had never heard of them. They also found reports online that the company was a scam.

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