READ MORE: Home Improvement Horrors RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- 8News is investigating after two Central Virginia widowers are certain they were victims of greed. Scattered around Tim Haufler's kitchen in late October, where a shiny new stove sat in its box, were the signs of a dream kitchen renovation that never came to pass. Haufler’s plans for his kitchen started as soon as he bought the home. It was part of a new life chapter he was embarking on with his two young kids. They’d moved to Hanover, back closer to family, after Haufler lost his wife of 33 years in September 2022. (Photo: Brad Vassar, 8News)(Photo: Brad Vassar, 8News)(Photo: Brad Vassar, 8News)(Photo: Brad Vassar, 8News)(Photo: Brad Vassar, 8News) He wanted to fix the peeling floors, older cabinetry, stove missing its handle and the dishwasher relegated to only storing dishes it could no longer clean. And with the inheritance from his late sister who passed away in October 2023, just months before his father’s death, he had the nearly $13,000 that a man named Patrick Farley said he needed to change everything he wanted. But 10 months after hands were shaken and a contract was signed -- after Haufler had already gotten rid of furniture and bought new appliances -- the new stove and dishwasher still hadn’t moved. Instead, the stove in its box and the dishwasher wrapped in plastic were still surrounded by a kitchen with zero work done. "I just relatively lost my cool calling him up," Haufler said, recounting his conversation with Farley. "I said, 'Listen, buddy, you stole my money.'" About 25 miles away, 89-year-old Horace Poulston shakes his head looking at the uneven, crumbling asphalt that stops only halfway down his driveway. “It’s coming apart and you can see it right here,” Poulston said, pointing to the ragged edge where the asphalt abruptly ends. The asphalt is visibly only a quarter thick in most places, at least three inches thinner than the bare minimum experts recommend for a residential driveway. (Photo: Brad Vassar, 8News)(Photo: Brad Vassar, 8News)(Photo: Brad Vassar, 8News)(Photo: Brad Vassar, 8News) It too has been eight months since he heard from or saw the man contracted to do that job, Brian Taulton. In April, just weeks before his wife died, Poulston had paid Taulton nearly $10,000. The Red Flags “My dad told me he pulled up in the driveway, came up to the door and said he'd been doing other work in the area and that he had some leftover asphalt and that he could give him a deal on the asphalt,” said Wendy Booker recounting the catalyst for her communication with Taulton. Booker had quickly noticed what local commercial and residential paving companies describe as a less-than-shoddy job when she arrived for the funeral of her mother, Poulston’s wife of 70 years. She asked her dad to recount all the details, beginning to end. “First he told him it was $5 per square foot and then after he started doing the work and he came in to sign the paperwork, he said it was a flat fee and that flat fee was $9,500,” Booker said. For Booker, who says she worked in financial information security for 25 years and is highly attuned to signs of fraud, the red flags were everywhere that her dad had been left in the lurch. The door-to-door solicitation of services, starting work before a contract is signed and quickly changing quotes are all signs the Virginia Asphalt Association says are indicators a contractor isn’t legitimate. But Poulston didn’t know this. And Booker says he comes from a generation that largely paid for things outright, including the home he’d built with his own hands over decades. That’s why she believes her dad approved the withdrawal of $9,500 from his bank account when the bank called to inquire about the unusual activity, even though the job wasn’t yet finished. RELATED: What to know before starting your next home improvement project In her dad’s grief, she decided to take over communication with Taulton, sending him pictures and imploring him to fix what he’d done and finish the job. “Not only did they leave the mess in the driveway, they left a mess in the grass and, you know, my father has to cut grass and there's all this asphalt in the lawn that could kick up and hit things, that could hurt a person,” Booker said. “Really, it was broken trust.” Text messages show Taulton, initially adamant he’d done all he’d promised to do, reversing course days later after seeing online a negative post by someone else about his work. Booker says he finally called her back and agreed to show up on a Friday at 9 a.m. in early May. He didn’t show up. So, Booker called the police. Civil vs Criminal: How the police investigate and make decisions Booker says the police officer who showed up that day told her the case wasn’t criminal, it was civil. But when 8News inquired about the case it seemed that didn’t prevent Chesterfield Police Detective Michael Bowser from at least investigating the case. A review of his correspondence with Booker and multiple conversations with 8News in the early stages of the investigation revealed how difficult investigating and charging these kinds of cases can be. Months after our initial investigation began, our team found a man named Brian Taulton locked up in the Riverside Regional Jail and informed Detective Bowser. He was then facing several charges related to drug possession and falsely identifying himself to law enforcement. By November, he’d been convicted on two of the charges, including false identification, and was awaiting extradition. He was wanted back in West Virginia for a parole violation in connection to his 2020 case for “conspiracy to commit exploitation of an elderly person.” Namely, the violation of committing another crime while on probation. It’s one of at least a half-dozen similar convictions of fraud or construction fraud charges Taulton has racked up between 1996 and now, across Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia. Chesterfield Police are still investigating his connection to Poulston’s poor paving job and whether criminal charges are even possible because he did do some work, regardless of how poorly it was done. The Hanover County Sheriff’s Office is investigating Patrick Farley and his connection to Haufler’s case. Interviews with Bowser and other fraud detectives indicate his case could be more cut-and-dry. “If somebody comes to your house, you sign a contract, you pay them and they don't do any of the work at all, you cut off all communications and everything, then that right there is an issue that's a criminal issue,” Bowser said. Bowser said it’s critical at that point for victims to send a 15-day letter by certified mail with a return receipt, demanding the money back. Haufler’s attorneys sent such a demand letter to Farley, demanding the return of nearly $12,000 Haufler had given Farley for materials that he never received. If he isn’t responsible for this job, Farley, like Taulton, is still the kind of contractor experts, including police wouldn’t recommend. Farley has twice pleaded guilty to construction fraud-related charges -- in Hanover in 2007 and Chesterfield in 2016. “It's hard when we do see repeat offenders because we know this person has already been charged and convicted of it once before,” Bowser said. “And they're back out here doing it again. You know, the best thing we can do is just remain vigilant with them. And if we do get reports on them, go after them again if we need to.” Bowser says he’s worked cases before with the same potential perpetrator popping up several times in cases that he ultimately determined were civil before he was able to bring criminal charges against them. What's the cost? Farley and Taulton’s previous convictions have been revealed via court documents to have cost unassuming customers tens of thousands of dollars over the years. And every year, Americans lose millions of dollars in construction fraud cases. In Virginia, it’s unclear how much money has been lost in such schemes. But we do know the commonwealth paid out nearly $900,000 to victims in the last fiscal year which ended in July 2024 through its Contractor Transaction Recovery program. Over five years, the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation has revealed the total was $4,007,507–an average of $13,350 per case. You’ve fallen victim to a contracting scam, now what? These numbers only include victims who lost money to contractors who were licensed at the time the incident occurred. That remedy wouldn’t even be possible for Poulston and Haufler, who together have lost more than $20,000. Both worked with men who state licensing data shows were either not licensed at the time they contracted to work with them or have never been licensed in Virginia. This is why DPOR recommends those hiring someone to do work always look them up using the agency’s License Lookup Tool. There you can see whether the state has ever had to pay someone to cover the losses from a contractor’s work. You can also see whether there’s ever been disciplinary action taken against the licensee. A search for Farley, for instance, shows one contractor license that expired in 2008. A search for Taulton reveals no records. A contractor’s license is required in the state of Virginia to do paving work. But even then, the Virginia Asphalt Association recommends homeowners complete several other steps to ensure their contractor isn’t likely to leave them hanging or with subpar work. All the steps are necessary because as Haufler found out with his kitchen renovation, just following the first and selecting “a contractor known for high-quality work and who has an established reputation in the community” through family and friend referrals, can still lead to heartbreak. “I invested my heart into this,” Haufler said. “The kids were excited about it. They’ve been begging me. Dad, find another contractor.” Now he has, but it’s costing him another $18,000 for a new contractor and materials. “I don't want this to happen to anyone else,” Haufler said.