GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Neighbors in Montgomery County are alerting WUSA9 about some of their concerns of aggressive contractors in Gaithersburg following tornado damage on Wednesday. People in the community said they are overwhelmed by the amount of people that are approaching them.
A viewer reached out to WUSA9 about her concerns of possible scams, she said at first, she thought maybe people were being helpful, which some are, but others are being aggressive. Several neighbors tell us they’ve been approached at least six times over the past 48 hours.
"Some of them were just here on the ground, you can see where they kind of impaled the lawn,” Johnston said.
Karen Johnston can easily recall every single detail the night a tornado ripped through her neighborhood in Gaithersburg. Johnston said it’s easier to point out the after affects from the storm.
“The night of the storm they [the alleged contractors] came, and they were trying to and we were still in shock because I never thought in my life, I’d have a tornado," Johnston said.
She says the number of contractors in the neighborhood and calling has been overwhelming.
“So that says 'scam likely', and this one is from Frederick, there’s another one yesterday that I didn’t pay attention to, might’ve been this one,” Johnston said.
She says she knows some of the contractors are legit but is afraid that others are being predatory, and it may be some sort of scam.
“I let him look at my roof and stuff and he showed me pictures of shingles and said ‘oh they were damaged’ and when I looked at the picture my roof is green and those pictures look like they were black shingles," Johnston said.
“There were so many and they don’t take no for an answer," another woman who lived in the neighborhood said. "That’s what really irritated me and they'd say ‘oh here just take this, oh you already have a contractor, we can inspect this for free.’”
Both women said they’re also thinking about some of their elderly neighbors.
“Now I’m concerned I need to go check,” another neighbor said when talking about other people who live nearby.
“I locked my front door and pulled the blinds down because I don’t want them bothering me,” Johnston said.
We did reach out to Montgomery County Police about this, but they said they haven't had any reports of scams at this time. The department did offer this advice for people:
- don't share personal or financial information
- use caller ID and call blocking apps to screen calls
- always ask for someone to verify their identity independently