gypsy painters back again

Has anyone ever dealt with a Hugh Riley or a Don Carrol barn and grain bin painters? They are now in east central Indiana and some call them "travelers" but I call them gypsy painters. They drive into the barn yard honking the horn on a late model pick up truck and sweet talk the man in charge, in my case my 88 year old father, after he leaves, I find out they struck a deal to paint bins or a roof, etc. When the crew comes, they are black guys covered in aluminum paint and appears to be prison chain gang.The boss treats them like his slaves. They climb unsafe and work quickly and never seem to complain or get hurt. They work in 90 degree heat and no prep work is done to the metal before squirting it with whatever paint is agreed upon, usually white house paint but aluminum is their favorite. It is certainly just short of a scam, these guys call the Carolina's their home. I absolutely hate the tactics they use, and my father refuses to allow me a paint budget but when these crooks drive in and call him "sir" he eats it up and gets out his check book, I wanna puke. The paint washes off during the next rain or flakes off in the wind. Anyone else deal with this problem?

I operated a fabrication shop and made about three tanks for them. Every deal went bad. last one i refused to do. He said that I would have no risk involved because he was giving me half the money at the time. Like a fool I had it made. He showed up one day early and we finished the tank. His partner would be along in a few minutes with the rest of the money. I loaded the tank and he took off when I looked away. At another time I made one and the customer never came back. About 6 months later a guy came in and described what he wanted . I told him that I had one almost like he wanted. I had to reduce the price to get rid of it. Have nothing to do with them. They WILL cheat you!

This subject comes up from time to time on here and I have had a very different results. This guy comes to this area every spring, has been for over 40 years, has his grandson with him this year. He mostly paints tobacco barns and says tobacco barns are disapearing, race horse barns and houses now. He does paint rain or shine but if I had a problum he will fix it. Once he repainted a barn roof a year later because he didn't like how it looked. ALL ARE NOT LIKE HIM !

You have many options, you could call the county and see if they have a vendors lic., the state Attorney General may also be a possibility. Some police dept.s have units that go after shady business men that prey on the elderly. And depending on their operation you may be able to get the EPA on them if they dump paint or it runs off. I'd start calling around.

They are called travelers and come up here every year looking for more suckers. I had a friend camping next to where this crew of travelers stayed one summer. They get their paint delivered in the middle of the night and carry along a gallon can of rustoleum aluminun to show people what they use but they don't show you where their large container of paint came from. Interesting to play dumb and see how much they try to get by with. These that come up here usually camp at the indian casinos and they usually skip out on the camping fees.
The old saying you get what you paid for comes into play here.

Reminds me of when I was Buildings and Grounds Supervisor for a local public school district 25 years ago.

One of these types looked up the Chairman of the School Board and offered to paint the football goal posts, and the flag poles in front of the high school and elementary school buildings for $200. He knew better than to come to either me or the Superintendent. The Chair of the School Board thought it was a good deal, told him to go ahead, and paid him in advance out of his own pocket.

All the guy did was get out a bucket of paint and a paint roller with a 20' handle. He was done in 15 minutes and disappeared down the road.

The Chairman of the School Board learned a lesson they never taught him in school.

They call themselves the Irish Travellers and speak with a thick brougue although to my knowledge the closest anyone of them has been to Ireland is the Carolina compound called Murphy Village, a closed community. Their plates will be from anyone of the south east states, although they all live in that one huge gated compound and never marry from outside of that compound, nor go to school. I've had run ins with those guys all the way back to the early '70's when the Elkhart, IN. was the RV capitol of the world and they'd always come buy new trailers to live and travel in with their new overloaded 1/2 ton pickups. Those guys are bad news. My first dealing with them was when a friend of mine asked me to help me clean the outside of one of their tar coated pickups because the guy promised to pay us well. Honestly, we were about 12 or so and the guy made us unload every piece of equipment and tank in the back of the truck, and clean the tar off of every inch of it, pointing out the slightest spots, and when we were done, and it took us all day, he paid us 25 cents each...a quarter a piece. I swear to God. When I was older, 16, I worked at a gas station after school, and they'd always come in and ask for $1 worth of gas, and after pumping them the $1 worth of gas, they'd always hand me no less than a $20 to break for them, and often $50 bill to break for $1 worth of gas. After a few times of that, they started getting back the change in dimes, quarters, and $1 bills.

Typical last names of the Irish travellers are Toogoods, Burkes, Carols, Daleys, Gallaghers, Gormans, Jennings, McDonalds, McNalleys, and Reillys.

Those guys are bad bad news. They are gypsies and will steal a store blind, or buy merchandise and then take it back, after switching it with a cheap piece of junk. I could go on, and on, and on with true stories of my dealings with the gypsies, but nothing tops my advise of just avoiding them like the plague and saving yourselves a lot of needless grief. They are experts at shell games, bate and switch, and are fulltime con artists. Their reputation precedes them with and for good reason. Do a Google Search for "Irish Travell Murphy Village" and see what you come up national news story wise.

Mark

A few years back I think 60 minutes did a story on them, specifically ones from Murphy, South Carolina.

Here in Georgia we get what my friend in the small contracting business (driveways, lot clearing etc) the "gypsy pavers" who do parking lot and driveway jobs, always some story about how they have all this extra asphalt from some big job that cancelled etc. and they do a lousy prep job and put it on thin, driveways crumble in a year or two.

They are in Murphy's Village, SC. It is north of Augusta, GA, on both sides of Hwy 25. Some of the homes are monster sized. It is said to be a self contained community with their own church, social hall, stores, etc.
I can only imagine that they pay little if any income taxes as they insist on cash.
If I tried this, the IRS would be knocking on my door investigating any lead they could to recover taxes on the obvious "rich" lifestyle of someone that reports little or nothing.
DO NOT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH THEM. THEY INVENTED SMOOTH TALKING AND SALES BS.
Neighbor had them paint a tin roof 30 years ago. (they have been around a long time) It looked great until the first rain, then he had silver grass and dirt around the building.

Do you have a problem simply saying NO???

Here's a partial history on them. If you want to read a good one about them, I will only say that it involved trying to scam Disney World for major $$$ until they got caught.

Mark
Irish Traveler Gypsies

Just be careful some of them like to alter checks for thousands of extra dollars.

That article was WAY too kind to that bunch. About 99.9% of them are crooks, rather than the 10 % mentioned.. I have seen them intimidate lots of otherwise intelligent people with their scams. Heck, even the Police and IRS must be scared of them.. They continue their scams, year after year, and never get arrested.

I guess I am missing the problem. Is your shotgun so rusted up it will not work anymore ?

You are correct Davis, that article was too kind for the Toogoods and the rest of them.

I remember when this made national news, the Disney World thing. And by the way, the other article said that they refer to us as "country people". No they don't. They call anyone other than them that is attached to a home and job and settled down lifestyle..."Refs" as in refugees. They are not nice, good, hard working, honest people. Again, their reputations precede them for good reason...they earned them.

Mark
Not Good Or Innocent Folks

As others have said run these guys off or better yet have the sheriff there when they are supposed to return.

I live in SC and have been by Murphy Village a few times and as was said above, the homes have improved down through the years. Friends used to live in Augusta and the wife worked in a jewelry store and complained of the women shoplifting.

I've dealt with one for years having barns painted. When he started coming I didn't know about the Irish gypsies but am suspicious of anyone coming up offering to do work, so dealt with him at arm's length. On one occasion I bought my own paint and had him apply it. Eventually found his paint lasted as well as any. He seems to have adopted the business model of doing satisfactory work and getting repeat customers. He takes checks too. That being said, he's never set foot in my house. Found out he was a Irish Gypsy after seeing the program on TV. When I asked later where he lived he didn't give N Augusta but listed Aiken, which is some miles away.

Another business some of them tried is to buy up cheap presses and other mechanics tools and try to peddle them. Don't know if that lasted or not since mechanics are not elderly homeowners and know the value of things like that.

KEH

That's a little stronger statement than I would've expected from my San Franciscan friend. I liked it.

I threw a handfull of drywall screws into the paint pot, after they gave one of my trucks a spattering, a few years ago. Mom is the same as your dad, has to have watery paint hosed on the barns every year or 2. She lets 'em park their trucks here, while they scout out new work. At night I go to work on tires, with a screw gun!