No defense for disappearing fence builder

FOX 2 - Meet sad sack Dan Jones.

See, Dan took down payments to build fences for these nice folks - but then Dan ran.

And while down and out, Dan wants you to feel sorry for him - don't. Because Dan didn't deliver.

Meet Missy the dog.  Her owner Mary wanted a fence to keep her puppy safe and in April, she hired Dan Jones of Jones Brothers Fencing. 

"He was very professional," Mary said. "He sounded like he knew what he was doing."

But soon after handing over $2,400 to Dan the fence man, she says she received upsetting news.

She got an email saying the company was shutting down.

"I will leave you with two options," Dan's email said. "One, is that I return your deposit or two, we install your fence with a 40 percent discount off the final invoice."

"At first I felt sorry for him," Mary said.

But as she read on, she felt Dan duped her.

"Unfortunately, I don't know when I can follow through with either option. My best guess, is three to six months," his email said.

Mary had just paid this guy. Why would she have to wait three to six months for a refund?

"I don't know what he did with the money unless it's a scam," she said.

Al paid $1,250 down for his fence in early April.

"About three weeks later they sent us the letter saying they were dissolving their company," he said.

Al fired an email back.

"No,  this is fraud.  When you take money for a service and don't perform those services, it's fraud," Al wrote.

Dan Jones emailed back to Al, "I can guarantee there was no fraud, scam or foul play in this matter."

And that's the last Al heard from disappearing Dan.

"Give them the shame, man," Al said.

Rocket used Jones Brothers Fencing before.

"Their work is fantastic, we had no problem with that," Rocket said.

So last winter, he had Dan Jones come out again.  Dan told him this:

"'That section there will be like $1400 and I'll just need half to get the materials and we'll put you in the books for February,'" Rocket said Dan told him. "Well, that was it. He come by and got the $700 and we never heard from him again."

But these aren't the only people who got the shaft.

In his email, fence-man Dan admitted there were 10 customers he'd taken deposits from who were now up against the wall.

Mary and Al tried suing but the process server couldn't find Dan at any of the addresses Jones Brothers listed.

Rocket's a retired auto worker. He had a UAW lawyer send Dan legal letters but got no response.

Rob Wolchek spent plenty of days sitting in a van watching for Dan but it seems Dan had dashed.  

About a month ago, Wolchek went to Dan's door and spoke with his wife - she said that Dan had moved out.

Wolchek gave her his card and told her to have Dan call, but he never did.

Finally, last week, Dan answered the phone.

Wolchek: "I'm recording this for broadcast just to let you know."

Dan: "Absolutely. I understand. I've been wanting to be in contact with you and I, uh, I'm glad you called."

Gladness quickly turns to sadness.

"Work's been hard to get man," said Dan crying on the phone. "It's tough, you know.   I'm not a bad person. Life happens. I tried to stay in contact the best I could."

Dan claims he's back doing a fence job, for free, for a lady in Livonia he owed several thousand dollars to.

"I drove by her house, and the guilt and the shame, it's just tough. I'm just one guy man," he said. "It was eating at me. I'll be real honest, I am a recovering drug addict I was clean for several years.

"All this started happening. I started using again. I'm already clean again. It was like a little month slip-up."

The next day Rob's cameraman lucks out and finds Dan in Livonia. And a day after that, Dan the man gets to meet Rob the reporter.

Wolchek: "Hey Dan."

Dan: "Whoah."

Wolchek: "Rob Wolchek from FOX 2."

Dan: "I was just going to call you actually."

Wolchek: "So have you contacted any of these people I've talked to - Al Stacko?"

Dan: "No I have not."

Wolchek: "They're real mad. They want to serve you."

"What about Mary Morielle? She's a nice lady in, I think, Garden City?"

Dan: "Like I said ..."

Wolchek: "She has a real cute dog, and she wanted a fence for her dog."

Dan: "Yep, yep."

Wolchek "And you bailed on her."

Dan: "Yeah, I did. I went through some hard times and I handled it incorrectly and I should have done it a whole different way."

No doubt - next Rob brings up Rocket.

Wolchek: "He gave you $700. It's not a ton of money, but if someone took $700 from me -  Whenever it was, February of something, and now it's November, I would say you stole that money. Don't you think?"

Dan: "Yeah. You know I've given money to some people and you know I also have kids as well.

"I'm not saying they're not priority, because I need to feed my kids and anything, but it's kind of been the little bit that I have, it's dispersed. It doesn't go to all ..."

Wolchek: "But these people have kids too, man."

And remember, Dan's wife said he moved out.

Wolchek: "Your wife told you that I came by, right?"

Dan: "Yep."

Wolchek: "So why didn't you call me then?"

Dan: "Um. We kinda weren't talking at the time."

Well if she told you Wolchek came by, you must have been talking.

Wolchek: "So I still don't know what happened to the money. You took the money and what did you do?"

Dan: "I was finishing up other jobs ..."

Wolchek: "Finishing other jobs?"

Dan: "This isn't an excuse, right? It took me a long time before I grew up."

Wolchek thinks you still have a long way to go Dan ... You're in the Hhhhhall of Shame.