Man came back twice for more cash
DELMAR– A contractor from Castleton turned himself in on Wednesday, Nov. 6 for active arrest warrant because he allegedly took money for work never performed.
According to reports, a local victim sold Nelson Lovelace, 57, a washer and dryer through a transaction on Craigslist. During the process, Lovelace and the victim had a conversation about Lovelace performing work at their residence.
Lovelace allegedly created and the victim signed a contract for the work last November. The victim paid Lovelace $900 for materials with a check at that time. A month later, Lovelace showed up at the residence and requested $250 more for a dumpster, which the victim paid, and a few days after that asked for another $100 saying that he had personal financial issues.
At that time, the victim did not pay the additional money and said Lovelace would have to contact her son to make arrangements for any other payment. Lovelace was told there would be no further payments without work starting at his parent’s house.
The contractor never started the work and texted repeated excuses why he could not start. In May, the final contact the son had with Lovelace, was a graphic photo of a buttocks sent to the son.
The victim contacted Bethlehem police at that point and provided video of the transaction and a record of the checks written. After an investigation, police applied for and received an arrest warrant for his arrest.
Lovelace turned himself in and was charged with grand larceny – fourth degree, a felony. He was released with an appearance ticket for Bethlehem Town Court on Tuesday, Dec. 3. Judges cannot set bail on the charge of grand larceny-fourth and police must release the defendant.
