WYANDOTTE, Mich. (WXYZ) — “I don’t want to answer the phone, I don’t want to open the door up to anybody,” says Earl Kontowski, who is on edge, after he says a phony construction crew tried to rob him.
Last Friday, he says a man dressed a construction worker asked to discuss potential improvements to the alley behind his home.
“We were back there talking. So while we were back their talking his partner came in started ransacking the house, going through everything,” Kontowski says.
According to a police report, the suspect even broke the wood door to this closet, which Kontowski always keeps locked.
Despite all the warnings signs, Kontowski says the men fit the part.
“I heard this stuff on the radio and television over and over and this just did not click,” he says.
An Air Force Veteran, Kontowski feels personally targeted.
“I defended a country for those people to live in and this just isn’t right to me," he says. "That isn’t want I defending a country for to be scammed and robbed by somebody.”
According to police, the men didn’t get away with anything. Kontowksi believes they were looking for cash. Days before this happened, a crew came to his home offering improvements to his porch.
“The fella said he could do it for a couple hundred bucks. Then when he got through, he said $1,600,” he says "I wanted to give him a check and he said 'no, I want cash'.”
The receipt was just a handwritten note with a phone number. We gave it a ring. They told us it was a wrong number.
“Something like that could happen to anyone down here, so the rest of the neighbors need to be aware,” says Kontowski's neighbor, Ronald Partlow.
Police say if someone comes to your door, even if they're in a proper uniform, you always have the right to ask for ID or call the company or city they say they're with.
Detectives in Wyandotte continue to investigate the case.
