Two Busted In Alleged Door-To-Door Handyman Racket Targeting Elderly Homeowners For Easy Ripoffs; Cops Seeking 3rd Suspect

In Waterville, Maine, the Kennebec Journal reports:

• Police arrested two men Tuesday and are looking for a third man in connection with what they said are scams against older people. The men reportedly were knocking on doors and asking to rake, trim trees and seal driveways and then perform inadequate work, according to police Chief Joseph Massey. In one case, one of the men reportedly stole 40-milligram OxyContin pills, Massey said.

• "You want to be very suspicious of contractors who approach you to do work and they want to start immediately," Massey said Wednesday. "It's just amazing. There's always somebody willing to steal you blind in a heartbeat."

• Arrested Tuesday were Jason Donald Bolduc, 32, of Kennebunk, and Jean Louise Beaulieu, 39, of Biddeford. Both were charged with violation of seller's performance, a law that requires contractors to wait three days before doing work to give customers time to cancel a contract. The men also were summonsed for a second charge of violating a contract, and Bolduc was summonsed and charged with stealing drugs, Massey said.

• Additionally, Beaulieu was charged with violation of conditions of release. District Attorney Evert Fowle said Wednesday that he later was charged with violation of consumer sales solicitation and violation of registration, as he was not registered to do such work in Maine.

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• Fowle started a program in Kennebec and Somerset counties to educate health care facility workers and others about scams targeting the elderly. The program takes inventory of every case in which a victim is older than 60, and those cases receive heightened scrutiny, Fowle said.

For more, see Police arrest pair in reported scam.