Bad roofer has many names - including crook, victims say

FOX 2 - Meet roof-goof Joseph James Delmaro.

"I don't want to talk ugly on the (expletive) camera," he said. "Shut the (expletive) camera off and I'll talk to you properly."

Rob Wolchek: "No, I'm not shutting the camera off."

Joe likes to keep a low profile - so low, his customers can't find him.

The backstory:

"We signed the contract, we gave him a check of $9,500 and we never saw him." said Jim.
       
How low can low-profile Joe go?

"Never heard back," said Steve.

Wolchek: "So technically he owes you $200,000?"

Steve: "He does."

Wolchek: "And you think you will ever see it?"

Steve: "No."

Even lower.

"Kept calling him for two years. I took him to the court. He never showed up or responded to any inquiries," said a victim who won a $290,000 court judgement.

So low, Joe got dough cheating a homeless shelter.

Jim is the director of the homeless shelter based in Flint. 

"To take money from an organization that is providing services for runaway and homeless youth and their families, I don't have a whole lot of respect for him," he said.

Wolchek came across commercial business roofer Joseph James Delmaro in a weird way. He was actually looking for another roofer named James Delmaro.

A guy calling himself Jimmy Delmaro took a bunch of money from Detroit residents in a traveling roofing and asphalt scam. Wolchek's search for Jimmy lead to an address in Rochester Hills.  

See, there's a roofer there who calls himself Jim Delmaro.

But this guy looked different and then, he called to assure me he was not the door-to-door rip-off roofer Jimmy Delmaro.

"Okay ... that's definitely not me sir," he said.

The guy on the phone, Joseph James Delmaro, says he only does commercial roofing - not houses like the other guy.  he says he  runs a company called Proteck Roofing.

"I used to have a CM Roofing a long time ago," he said.

He says the bad Jim Delmaro is a relative and he'll help Wolchek find him.

"I promise you that I will get you a phone number, give me a few minutes," Delmaro said. "Let me call to Connecticut because I have to call one of my cousins there, and see if I can track down this James Delmaro that you're looking for, because it's definitely not me sir."

But he never called back and Wolchek got a bad feeling.

So he looked at this guy's Protek Roofing website - pretty sketchy. The supposed address of the business was a run-down house in Detroit.

Then Wolchek found the lawsuits which ended in three big judgements against Joseph James Delmaro.

"I think he is a thief," said Jim.

Meet Jim Perlacky. He runs the homeless shelter.

"We are a not-for-profit organization providing services for homeless youth," he said.

Their clients are kids in crisis as young as 11 years old. They provide counseling, food and a roof over their heads - except, the roof leaked.

The shelter received a postcard and called for some work. Out came a big roofer calling himself Jim Delmaro - who took a deposit and bailed.  

"He knew who we were, I mean we have a contract with him, he knew the organization, he came out, he did the bid, he checked out the facility, he knows what he did, and he has no conscience," Perlacky said.

Joseph "Jim" Delmaro never did the job.

They sued and won a $24,000 judgment - but never got a dime from Joseph James Delmaro.

He had his photo taken by the cops who served him.  

"I believe that he is in business to make money at any cost and any cost means he doesn't care who he screws," Perlacky said.

Wolchek: "Does it shock you to see me going after this guy?"

Steve: "It does not."

Steve runs LSM Systems of Waterford. He got one of those cards in the mail as well.

"So our whole roof needed a tear-off and a re-do because it was leaking it had been leaking for a number of years, and he said that's what he specialized in, rubber roofings," he said. "He was a Fire Stone dealer, an authorized installer, and we get a 30-year warranty on the Fire Stone products and we hired him."

Joseph James Delmaro.

"He called himself Joe to us, then we found out it was Jim and he has other family members that use the same name," he said.

He got paid and actually did some work - but the roof still leaked.

"We found out he didn't put the material on correctly," said Delmaro. "It was not warrantied through Firestone and it was not represented to be what it was."

Steve sued and won a $200,000 judgment. Delmaro didn't pay.

"I think he should go to jail," he said.

A Dearborn business owner was another victim.

"Jimmy, Jim, Joe, those names he goes by," he said.

This shop owner doesn't want his customers to know he got taken. He, too, hired the guy from the mailer - Joseph James Delmaro.

"Every dollar we work hard to get it," he said.

It hurt when Delmaro abandoned the job. The business owner sued and won a $290,000 judgment. Of course, Delmaro dashed.  

But he's back, trying to sell a roofing job to Wolchek's undercover camera person. Once again, he's calling himself Jim.

"We also do seal coatings, striping if you're interested in doing that," Delmaro said. "I know a lot of people don't want to do it right now."

And that's when Wolchek walks up to meet Jim face-to-face.

"Hi Jim, Rob Wolchek from FOX 2."

Remember, this guy called Rob because he didn't want Wolchek to confuse him with his cheating cousin - pretty dumb, because he's just about as bad.

Wolchek: "You said you were going to help me find that Jimmy guy, what happened?"

Delmaro: "He got arrested didn't you find out?"

Wolchek: "No I didn't."

Delmaro: "He got arrested in Virginia."

Wolchek: "No kidding."

Delmaro: "Yes sir. You can look it up and find him."

Wolchek: "Well how come you didn't call me back?"

Delmaro: "I tried, uh, my son tried calling you. I guess he left a message. I don't know if he left a message for you."

Nice try Joe. Wolchek hates to turn the tables on this guy - but seriously, he ripped off a charity for teenage runaways.

Wolchek: "Turns out you're kind of a shady guy, too."

Delmaro: "Where am I a shady guy?"

Wolchek: "You remember a place in Flint, a homeless shelter? A place called Genesee County Youth Group? Remember that place?"

Delmaro: "Yes sir."

Wolchek: "What happened?"

Delmaro: "I made arrangements to pay the people back."

Wolchek: "When?"

Delmaro: "Six months ago, seven months ago."

Wolchek: "Did you pay them back?"

Delmaro: "No I haven't paid them back yet, but give me the information and I'll take care of it."

Wolchek: "Well why didn't you pay them back? They've got a judgment against you for $24,000."

Delmaro: "Well I was sick sir. I had problems myself."

Guess he was too sick to even pick up the phone, because the shelter says this guy ghosted them.  

Delmaro: "You don't have to record me sir and put me on the TV and all that."

Wolchek: "Well I am."

Now Rob shows him court papers from the LSM lawsuit - Steve's business.  

Delmaro: "That was already taken care of in courts and everything."

Wolchek: "It was taken care of? They got a $200,000 judgment against you. What happened with that job?"

Delmaro: "Well I told him we had no money at the time. I talked to his attorney and everything."

So much for "taking care" of it. The guy didn't pay back a dime.

"You came to my house unlegally," Delmaro said. "You recorded my trucks and I'm not the guy you're looking for."

Wolchek: "Well I'm looking for you now."

"I'm Joseph Delmaro, I'm not Jim Delmaro."

Wolchek shows him a lawsuit in his name - "This is Joseph Delmaro, that's you!"

"Ok. I said I'll take care of this," he said.

Next up, the Dearborn business whose owner was so humiliated by getting ripped off by him he wants to hide his face.

"Remember this place?" asks Wolchek.

"I talked to him last week," Delmaro said. "I told him I'll come in person and talk to him."

Wolchek: "Well why haven't you done it?"

Delmaro: "Sir, I have no time!"

Wolchek: "Well you have time to come and pitch a job right?"

Delmaro: "Yeah I came out to pitch a job, yeah."

'Joe-Jim-James' says the other Jimmy Delmaro is his cousin, then tried to clear up his own numerous name use.

Wolchek: "So Joe, you go by Joe or Jim?"

Delmaro: "Joseph."

Wolchek: "Joseph?"

Delmaro: "I use Jim. My middle name is Jim. My middle name is James it's not Jim."

"So your family goes around doing these various kinds of scams, right?" says Wolchek.

"You can't put me in the categor....they steal people," said Joe. "I don't steal nobody."

"It looks like you do. I just handed you three judgments for like, $600,000!" said Wolchek.

"I didn't steal," Joe says. "I did like, half of the job for the guy in Dearborn."

Yeah but the problem is, the guy wanted the whole roof job done.

Wolchek: "Seems like you're just ripping people off."

"I'm not ripping people off sir," he said.

Wolchek: "Okay. Here's my card. You call me back."

"I'll call you. Don't put me on Channel 2 News, you don't have authorization," he said.

If you're looking for commercial roofer Joseph James Delamaro .... look for him in the Hhhhhhalll of Shame!