[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: (Automatically Transcribed by Descript and it has not been editied for accuracy) It's around the house

[00:00:11] Amber Truckee:. But yeah, so the guy who came to my house and destroyed my property, because I did not pay him within 24 hours, decided not to pay his lawyer, uh, . Sweet irony. Yeah. Uh, and there's a really great clip out there, um, from K.

[00:00:30] Eric Goranson: I was hoping you were gonna bring this up cuz this is, I gonna, do you have

[00:00:33] Amber Truckee: the, the ability to play it Cause it's pretty hilarious.

[00:00:35] Amber Truckee: But Walking outta court Thursday, unprompted spoke to

[00:00:38] Eric Goranson: our cameras for the first time. Do

[00:00:41] Amber Truckee: you know there's people kidnapping babies out there and selling dope, right? Pretty great Mia. So

[00:00:48] Eric Goranson: this. Quote is the quote of the

[00:00:50] Amber Truckee: year. Maybe the year's not over and we still have another court date. So when it

[00:00:56] Jason McDaniel: comes to remodeling and renovating your home there,[00:01:00]

[00:01:09] Eric Goranson: welcome to the Round the House Show. Now we've got a special episode here today. If you have watched on social media, Last year maybe caught it on Inside Edition. Uh, it was all over the news. Remember that contractor that broke into their client's house and started swinging the sledgehammer and absolutely destroyed a bathroom because he wasn't getting paid in time.

[00:01:31] Eric Goranson: Yeah, we're gonna talk about the update here. So the first two segments here in the show, we're gonna talk. The team that actually repaired her shower and rebuilt it. So we've got William White and Jason McDaniel that went out there to actually rebuild the shower with a whole team of people. Now, Carolyn and I had been talking to them here, so we're gonna get into that, and then later on in the show we'll be talking to Amber and find out the update for this whole.

[00:01:54] Eric Goranson: So now we're gonna start at the very beginning. And don't worry, this one won't disappoint. First off, [00:02:00] we're gonna, Oh, we're gonna go to the top here. We're gonna go to Jason McDaniel on Broadway. That home away from home. Little Stoneman. A little load of the Global Tile Posse. It's time to Jason McDaniel.

[00:02:15] Eric Goranson: Brother, thanks for coming on today. Thanks for having me. And then of course, we got our good friend William White. From Art , absolutely . So anybody out there that has been watching this crazy story out there and you know, I've been in the kitchen and bath design world, uh, for 30 years. I've had people rip me off that didn't pay for kitchens, and not for a second did I think of, Oh, I'm gonna go take it back.

[00:02:50] Eric Goranson: And sure enough, somebody had the crazy idea that they were a used car salesperson and they went in to go take something away [00:03:00] when that wasn't even the issue. And I want, Jason, I want you to tell the story here cuz you have been. On this, on this since day one, Brother, about Amber and her story, you've turned that turd into a diamond with a lot of help

[00:03:15] Eric Goranson: Yeah,

[00:03:15] Jason McDaniel: No doubt about it. . Yeah, I mean, uh, you know, it started, uh, just was on in a little trip, uh, you know, in Chattanooga and, and, uh, Jeremy Johnson had posted. The video in, in my, my group, uh, Global Tile Posse. And, and so, you know, obviously you see the, the video and you're, I mean, the first time I saw it, I just kind of was like, This is , this is, this can't be real, or, or whatever, you know?

[00:03:37] Jason McDaniel: And, uh, and so, uh, you know, obviously the, the comments start coming in and then you realize that this is not a joke and this actually happened. So, uh, you know, I didn't, I hadn't really thought about it much after that point. Got on a plane, got home, uh, just. You know, had a really interesting moment where I was sitting at the island and, and you know, Kim was kind of standing across from me and I just was like, [00:04:00] Man, I've got this overwhelming feeling like I have to reach out to this woman and, and try to find her, try to, try to, try to track her down.

[00:04:07] Jason McDaniel: Um, it, it, it, it was interesting cuz it hit me hard. Like I just, I could feel it in my bones. And so I thought, you know, man, maybe I'll call email the radio station. So I did, I, I, or the, the news station, I, I emailed K R D O and I copied. I think William and, and Aaron and Mark Walsh and some other people thinking, if I have some other people paying attention to this, maybe, maybe they'll see something happen.

[00:04:32] Jason McDaniel: So, you know, the next day, check my email, check my email, and, and nothing came through. And obviously I, I started feeling really anxious. You know, my, my ate thought was if I have to watch somebody else, Do this bathroom. I'm going, I'm gonna, I mean, it's good. I'm not gonna be okay with that. So, um, so then I thought, okay, how can I, how can I find, you know, Amber?

[00:04:52] Jason McDaniel: Um, she wasn't on Facebook and, and I didn't, I looked around at a couple other things, and so I found her in the most annoying [00:05:00] place of all time, which is LinkedIn. And, uh, you know, I, I, I see these. I see these LinkedIn things on my email and LinkedIn's always like, Oh, come join. And I'm like, I hate you LinkedIn.

[00:05:12] Jason McDaniel: I don't wanna be a part of it. . So I, I found her and, uh, and, and I, I, I pretty much put the same message out there. I had to pay the 60 bucks to. Become a pro LinkedIn person and send her the message in. You know, that, that message just, um, it basically said Deathstar tractor beam. It said, uh, I'm Jason McDaniel, and I told her my credentials 2018 Rock Star Award winner, certified tile installer evaluator, blah, blah, blah.

[00:05:38] Jason McDaniel: You know, and, and I said, I've got a lot of really amazing partners in this industry. I I, I can put this bathroom together at no cost to you and, and we can deck it out and do whatever you want. Floor heat, linear drain, whatever, and. So I didn't really expect to hear from her, but five minutes later she sent me, uh, a message back and, um, And obviously I, at that point, I [00:06:00] was like, all right, we're that, we're that much closer, you know?

[00:06:03] Jason McDaniel: Um, finally, finally getting closer. Yeah. So, so then, um, you know, I, I knew, and William knows this about me, if I can get you in front of me or get you on the phone, it's, it's done deal. And I just thought, I gotta get her on the phone. And, and, and I'm, and I, you know, it, my passion will come through and, and it'll work out.

[00:06:22] Jason McDaniel: So I got her, I got her to call. And, um, and it was, it was an interesting, there was that I had that feeling inside like, Holy crap, this is happening. Yeah. You know? Um, and she called me and we talked and, and she was, Amber is a very, very cool person. And, um, yeah, you know, she's just a normal person that had a really horrible thing happen to her and she was getting shredded on in the media people saying, You get what you paid for and all this crap.

[00:06:47] Jason McDaniel: Oh,

[00:06:47] I

[00:06:47] Eric Goranson: was, I was jumping on defender around stuff because, Things have posted up and I'm like, Oh, this is the same, Amber, wait a minute. And cuz their social media thing is not the same. And so her and I ended up becoming social media friends that way. [00:07:00] So there were two separate

[00:07:00] Amber Truckee: narratives. There was many of the news outlets

[00:07:03] Eric Goranson: said that homeowner didn't wanna pay.

[00:07:06] Eric Goranson: And, and

[00:07:07] Jason McDaniel: then there was Amber's side, which was, she had already paid. , you know, and she just wanted to see the job

[00:07:15] Amber Truckee: that was finished and she wanted the glass to be complete. She, she wanted the job done and she wanted to be able to

[00:07:21] Jason McDaniel: put eyes on it. Yeah. And the, the, the story, the, the real story about what happened, you know, with all of that is that they had glass in their contract or whatever you want to call it.

[00:07:31] Jason McDaniel: Yeah. And, um, and they, so they, she had, they said, Hey, can you pay? And she said, You know, what about the glass? And they said, Well, it's ordered. And she said, Hey, send me a receipt. Let me know that to show me that it's ordered and then I'll get home. She knew the work was really bad. She felt like, Oh crap, what am I, How am I gonna, how am I gonna confront them?

[00:07:53] Jason McDaniel: She was having that feeling. It was just the day of that, that they left, that they're asking for money. I mean, they didn't even, like [00:08:00] I give my customers an opportunity to, to sit in the space for a minute. , I mean, by the time my customer goes into the. They're like, When can we pay you? And, and that's really what, Yeah.

[00:08:09] Jason McDaniel: You know, the, his response was a nervous response. His response was a, Holy crap, this is so awful. I know I'm not gonna get paid. I gotta get this money as soon as possible. So then, then, you know, uh, she basically said, I wanna see a receipt. And then they backed out of the glass. They said, You know what? We just won't do the glass.

[00:08:26] Jason McDaniel: We'll pull it out of the contract. And that's when Amber said, Look, I gotta get home. And, and we'll evaluate and we'll talk about the. And that's when he said, I'm on my way to your house. I'm gonna take back my work. Um, and that, so that's what really happened. You know, obviously now that I'm, I'm, I'm sitting, you know, 15 feet away from the bathroom.

[00:08:43] Jason McDaniel: So having been here and seeing the work, I can understand why she was so freaked out. But, uh, you know, to to, to kind of finish what happened with, with me being here and getting William and Artex involved, it was, uh, you know, we, she, she had said, Hey, I, I really want to use Colorado contractors for this.

[00:08:58] Jason McDaniel: And I, and I said, I [00:09:00] think that's great. I think you should. And, and I basically, Use me as an outlet. If you have questions, you can call me. I can still try to get the materials provided, you know, I've got connections, so it's all good. And she said that a couple tile contractors from Colorado were gonna come over and, and, and look at the bathroom just in about 30 minutes.

[00:09:17] Jason McDaniel: So I just said, Good, good luck, you know, and got off the phone and, and then, um, she called me back about 30 minutes later and she said, You know, you're not gonna believe this, but both of the installers knew who you. And, uh, and, uh, uh, legend. So , so I was, like I said, you know, I, I said I don't want my ego to show here, but I doesn't really surprise me all that much, you know, don't go anywhere.

[00:09:40] Jason McDaniel: We'll get back to

[00:09:41] Eric Goranson: the Sledgehammer contractor story just as soon as around the house returns.

[00:09:58] Amber Truckee: Hand

[00:09:58] Eric Goranson: Satchel from [00:10:00] Steel Panther and you are listening

[00:10:02] Amber Truckee: to

[00:10:02] Jason McDaniel: Around The House with Eric G.

[00:10:05] Amber Truckee: Yeah, we love Eric

[00:10:07] Jason McDaniel: G and you should too.

[00:10:26] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round The House Show. We've been talking about the Sledge Hammer contractor at Colorado Springs, that whole story. Now let's get back to the conversation with Jason mcd. And William White telling the story of how this all came about. And then we'll talk with Amber Truckey with some really big information on where it is now.

[00:10:43] Jason McDaniel: You know, and, and I'm not saying that in a boastful way. Yeah. I'm just, you know, I put my face on a fricking phone every day, day, so, you know, I'm the idiot. Like, I mean, it's like, it's either embarrassing that they know, they know who I am or it's really cool, you know, I can't decide yet. Right. . So, um, so yeah, so that's how it [00:11:00] happened.

[00:11:00] Jason McDaniel: And, and she said, Are you willing to kind of, to head this out? Are you willing to kind of take the lead and, and, and run this thing? And, and so I was. Done deal. And we kind of made a pact, to be honest with you, Amber, you know, I was freaked out. I mean, if I'm being very transparent, like I was like, I don't want, I don't wanna lose this opportunity.

[00:11:17] Jason McDaniel: I, I wanna do this. So we made a, we made like a, a pact. We basically said, I, I, I said, I guarantee you perfection at no cost to. If you can guarantee me that I'm doing it. And, uh, we made a pact and we actually said, she said, we're on the plane. And, and so every couple days she would send me a text and, and it would be like a plane in the air

[00:11:39] Jason McDaniel: And it was like, so for a couple weeks we had a, We talked every day. Yeah, we talked every day. Um, and then, you know, obviously Matt, uh, Coppo and Jeremy Johnson, the Colorado guys were involved and he, we started a, a three way, uh, group chat. And then we started figuring. What we needed to do to get this thing done and that those are the things that, [00:12:00] that, that people are never really gonna know about this project is, is all of the work it took from Portland to make this thing happen.

[00:12:07] Jason McDaniel: I mean it like, it was an everyday thing for a couple weeks. I had to, I had to line up a general contractor that could get a permit for the window framing. Uh, we had to get a plumber. He had to attach to that permit. And I have a, I had a timeframe that, you know, here I am on a timeframe, so by the time I got here, we had the dedicated circuit for the, you know, dedicated circuit for the floor heat.

[00:12:29] Jason McDaniel: Uh, you know, where, get the fan going. We got the, the window was bought cuz we had to replace and put it in a new window. Um, so we hit the ground, you know, William and I, uh, William had to sit at the airport and wait for me on, uh, on Mon Monday night, Monday night or Monday night. Yep. And, uh, and then, you know, we, we, uh, uh, got here.

[00:12:50] Jason McDaniel: We hit the ground hard on Tuesday and, um, Yeah, I mean, and, and it's, I'm sure you'll have, you know, things you'll want to know about what we've been doing. But that's really how I [00:13:00] got here. And, and I started, I, I, I started making phone calls, brother. Like I got IQ to send Matt and Jeremy IQ saws, uh, Ruby sent them both speak Magnet cutters, the TCAs, giving him memberships go boards, giving them CTI tests.

[00:13:14] Jason McDaniel: They're gonna pay for the CTI test. I really had worked a, like, hard, you know, I'm the one. Is the social media guide. These guys, they don't do a lot of it. So I wanted to do everything I could to, to get them as much love as possible. And um, you know, by the time I got here, Amber, I had arranged for her to meet with the tile shop.

[00:13:33] Jason McDaniel: All the tile was ordered. I gave them the numbers based on seeing the pick, you know, the bathroom in my head. Yep. Um, and I can tell you right, We're pretty much done, so I know we've got enough material that's kinda, there's the key right there. Um, and

[00:13:47] Eric Goranson: a little scary at the same time when you're ordering tile from Portland,

[00:13:50] Jason McDaniel: Oregon.

[00:13:50] Jason McDaniel: Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah. So, yeah, so we, it, it, I mean, Like now that it's, uh, I don't even know what day it is. It's, it's Saturday for you guys. Um, . [00:14:00] Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Um, now that it's Saturday and, and, and, uh, you know, um, super bummed Williams not here to be honest with you, but, uh Oh. You'll see him in a couple days.

[00:14:08] Jason McDaniel: I'm . I know, I know. Yeah. But you know, Amber had picked out the material. We kind of came up with the design. I talked to my buddy, Bill Parker. He got the quick drain and the rapid recess kit. You know, this thing really came together. Um, a lot of work, but it came together. We've been hard at it, and we're just about done.

[00:14:30] Jason McDaniel: So,

[00:14:30] Amber Truckee: Jason, can you talk about,

[00:14:33] Jason McDaniel: um, as you started to do the demolition and you started to

[00:14:37] Amber Truckee: take things apart,

[00:14:39] Jason McDaniel: what, what did you find? Um,

[00:14:44] Eric Goranson: About how that shower was put together. It looked like a drunken eight year old did it for his first time to me. Well,

[00:14:51] Jason McDaniel: I mean, I'm not, I'm not even

[00:14:52] Amber Truckee: talking about the tile setting.

[00:14:53] Amber Truckee: I'm talking about the structure

[00:14:55] Eric Goranson: behind the tile.

[00:14:58] Jason McDaniel: Yeah. I mean, I, you're give, you're giving him [00:15:00] a lot of credit for being raped. I think he was married three or four .

[00:15:03] Eric Goranson: Amen,

[00:15:03] Jason McDaniel: brother. Amen. Uh, you know, I mean, um, yeah, it was awful. It was awful. And, and you know, there's a part of this that, that we have to be aware of is that it doesn't make me, I mean, I dislike this guy for bringing a sledge hammer into a female's home.

[00:15:19] Jason McDaniel: It doesn't matter who he is, Right? It's the fact that a, that a man, Came into a woman's house and was violent. That's the end of the dialogue right there. We don't even need to go any further with the story. Anybody that says, like, we could just forget the fact that he took the sledgehammer to the shower or whatever, he could have taken a sledgehammer to a rocking chair.

[00:15:37] Jason McDaniel: It wouldn't matter the fact that the sledgehammer came into the house. There's no more dialogue about, we shouldn't even, we don't even have to talk about anymore. The, these people out there that are siding with him or saying anything about anything, they need to look in the mirror and ask themselves, like what insecurities they have to make them say, make themselves say that.

[00:15:55] Jason McDaniel: So, you know, I mean, it, it this, So if, if we forget about all that, it [00:16:00] makes me sad. It, when I was taking that shower apart, I felt sad. That, that these people, um, that they don't have. It makes me sad for the industry because there's just such a huge gap in the, in, in, in the training and the education in this industry.

[00:16:19] Jason McDaniel: There is a huge problem with, with, with this industry when it comes to certain trades. Tile, I think is at the top of those traits. We don't have, The only thing you have to do in tile is a flood test. And, and a floor heat inspection, and we didn't even have to have a floor heat inspection here in Colorado that is shameful to this trade.

[00:16:39] Jason McDaniel: There should be an inspector that comes in here and makes sure that shower is bomber floor to ceiling, because let me tell you, this house would have been ruined after two showers. House is done. It's done. The, the, the, the, the pan liner was stapled onto the footing. It was sheetrock wrapped curbs with sheetrock [00:17:00] screws penetrating it.

[00:17:01] Jason McDaniel: It was the worst thing I've ever seen. It makes me really sad that, that, that, that, that this, these people that they thought and they, you know, really, they probably didn't think it was okay. They were just desperate to, to get some money. Yeah. Right. Gotta pay rent. And, and we also, Amber, last night we kind of sat here and talked.

[00:17:21] Jason McDaniel: The, the other part of this, which is how sad it is that they were so desperate. Yeah. You know, to how, Yeah.

[00:17:28] Amber Truckee: I gotta ask a question guys. How did Amber come across this contractor and how did

[00:17:32] Jason McDaniel: she end up using that? These are all really, this is a really good thing to ask. She, she, she reached out to eight people.

[00:17:38] Jason McDaniel: Okay. Eight. Wow. Eight. Only three of them called got in touch with her. Yep. All three bids. One of one of them like kicked her dog. Which the dog is red. . What? You're out in my book? Yep. My God. Yeah. And um, and then the all see people are saying, Well, you get what you pay for and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All three of the quotes were in a very similar line [00:18:00] of cost, so it wasn't like she said, I'm gonna pick the cheapest one.

[00:18:03] Jason McDaniel: In fact, she didn't pick the cheapest one. She picked the middle one, and it even goes further. She got messaged from people that said, That they had these contractors in their house, they did work. The work was bad, but they felt so bad for them that they gave them a good review. Ah, after the fact. She

[00:18:19] Eric Goranson: heard that after the fact.

[00:18:20] Eric Goranson: I saw those on her Facebook page actually. Those reviews, I read those, some of those messages. Wow.

[00:18:26] Jason McDaniel: So, and yeah, so the, and the company was also

[00:18:29] Amber Truckee: a female owned company, so who, who

[00:18:31] Jason McDaniel: came to meet with her was a female. So there's a sense of the safety, having. Female owned business for a single female. Like there's

[00:18:40] Eric Goranson: a sense of security in that.

[00:18:42] Eric Goranson: Yep. Now when we come back, we'll be talking with Amber about the update where it is through the legal system, just as soon as around the house returns. Welcome back to Around the House with Eric G. We've got special guest in the studio here, and if you went back and listened to our [00:19:00] previous episode, 1229 of the podcast.

[00:19:03] Eric Goranson: We told the story here of Amber and the Colorado contractor who wanted to change, I'll put this in my words, wanted to change the terms of the agreement and get paid early, and then went in there with a sled sham, entered the house and tried to quote, repossessed the bathroom, and this seemed like a really good idea.

[00:19:26] Eric Goranson: And we had a bunch of friends come in that are friends of Ambers. Friends of mine came in and and made that wrong. All right, and now, Amber's been going through the legal system with this chap. Welcome back to Around the House Amber. Thanks.

[00:19:40] Amber Truckee: Glad to be here.

[00:19:42] Eric Goranson: Yeah. You have the story that just keeps on giving.

[00:19:46] Eric Goranson: Sure. Does. and you're like, I just wanna go and enjoy my bathroom and be tired of talking about it. Right.

[00:19:55] Amber Truckee: Yeah, it's, it's amazing cuz it's been a year and it's still, um, [00:20:00] Gets brought up a lot. My friends, I think, uh, enjoy telling it to people when we meet people, and, um, you know, the, the legal stuff is still going on, so that keeps coming up.

[00:20:13] Amber Truckee: Um, occasionally people will, you know, kind of look at me and tell me that I look familiar, and then a little later they'll be like, Are you the girl? So, um, I'm just surprised that after a year it's still, it's still, uh, coming up quite a bit.

[00:20:26] Eric Goranson: Well, considering how shocking that video was to people and how over the top that situation was.

[00:20:34] Eric Goranson: I mean, I've got 30 years of the construction and design industry. If I hadn't seen the video, I'd go, Really? That happened? Wow. Yeah. That's how crazy

[00:20:43] Amber Truckee: that is. Yeah. I mean, that was my first experience of hiring a contractor, so I don't, Oh, I don't have much to compare it to. I mean, I would hope that that doesn't happen every time, but you know, I don't, No, I don't have the same life experience to be able to even, I guess, realize how crazy [00:21:00] it is.

[00:21:00] Amber Truckee: Maybe. Yeah,

[00:21:02] Eric Goranson: your experience should have been more like what Jason and all those other guys were. That's more of your typical contractor experience. The guys that came in and cleaned up that mess, cuz I mean, they could just as a home improvement expert. They didn't do anything right in that whole space.

[00:21:19] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. , I mean, no. You would think that even trying a hundred things, you'd get lucky and maybe get a couple, They didn't.

[00:21:27] Amber Truckee: Yeah. I mean, I remember looking at it and, and you know, I've, I've said this before, my stomach just sank. And I just remember thinking I could have actually done better than this. And that is saying something.

[00:21:40] Amber Truckee: Cause I am not a handy person. And I just remember thinking like I could have saved myself a boatload of money and actually did this myself and probably done a much better job. So that was shocking to me that it was that bad.

[00:21:53] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And I guarantee you would've, I mean, cuz you would've done the research, figured out how to do it and not just do everything [00:22:00] wrong.

[00:22:00] Eric Goranson: But, so basically my understanding is, is the prosecutor charged those guys with felonies and you've been following through the legal system as the victim. Uh,

[00:22:11] Amber Truckee: yeah, it's been kind of a mess. Um, it's crazy to me that it's taken this long. Um, you know, it, they, they were charged with, um, they're both charged equally with felony burglary, um, felony criminal mischief, and something else was on there, some, some misdemeanor charge.

[00:22:27] Amber Truckee: They both finally agreed to take plea deals. Um, Jordan, the plea deals basically were pleading down to just the, the. Felony criminal mischief. Um, but like the lowest class felony you can get. So, Yeah. Cause of course, you know, I get it, it as crazy as this was for me, and as crazy as this was for a lot of people, there's much bigger things going on in this city.

[00:22:50] Amber Truckee: They don't have time to, you know, they don't wanna take it to trial. It's just, it's a pain. Um, yeah. So they, they plugged down. Jordan has no criminal history [00:23:00] whatsoever. Um, and so her, she will get, she's already been sentenced. She gets two years probation. She has to take a class, uh, called Making Better Life Decisions.

[00:23:15] Eric Goranson: That's the best gift right there. Yeah, it's pretty

[00:23:17] Amber Truckee: good. Um, but I mean, clearly, you know, probably. Hopefully gonna be a helpful class for her. Um, it has to, and then also anger management. And I think it was like 150 or 200 hours of community service. If she completes all that and keeps her nose clean for the two years, um, basically the charge just gets taken off her record, so she'll be back to having no record.

[00:23:42] Amber Truckee: Um, I don't know what that means for like her license, cuz the, the business was licensed under her. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Um, yeah. Yeah. I

[00:23:51] Eric Goranson: think I saw something that Colorado pulled her license though, right?

[00:23:54] Amber Truckee: They, they eventually did. They didn't initially cuz they wanted to wait until she was, um, convicted.[00:24:00]

[00:24:00] Amber Truckee: They had basically told the news here that if they would've suspended it initially for, um, them not pulling permits cuz that's all they had at the. That it would just be a suspension. And they're like, rather than do that, we'll just wait for her to be convicted and then we can pull it permanently. So they did pull it.

[00:24:17] Amber Truckee: Um, good. Terry's been a bit of a different story.

[00:24:23] Eric Goranson: talk about bad life decisions. You're not the only victim now either. No.

[00:24:27] Amber Truckee: So since my incident, um, you know, and this is just, this is just based off of what I've been told, so I, I don't have any. Um, we don't have

[00:24:37] Eric Goranson: names and addresses, correct?

[00:24:39] Amber Truckee: Uh, well I actually have one name, I'm not gonna say it, but I have caught to one of the other victims.

[00:24:43] Amber Truckee: Um, Okay, got it. Apparently he was caught on Cam. It's just, it's like, I can't even say this without laughing cuz it's that absurd. He was caught on camera destroying somebody else's property. Um,

[00:24:56] Eric Goranson: I see a pattern.

[00:24:59] Amber Truckee: No, [00:25:00] I, You, you would think if you're awaiting court. To be sentenced for destroying someone's property.

[00:25:08] Amber Truckee: Maybe you wouldn't go destroy somebody else's property, but

[00:25:12] Eric Goranson: might wanna tap the brakes, right? Yeah. Tap

[00:25:14] Amber Truckee: the brakes for a while, but he didn't, so yeah. So he's got a, a criminal mischief misdemeanor he's been charged with for that. And then it's my understanding that he was charged with another incident.

[00:25:26] Amber Truckee: Separate incident, separate victim, another criminal mischief for another misdemeanor, criminal mischief for slashing his neighbor's tires.

[00:25:35] Eric Goranson: Awesome. Classy dude.

[00:25:37] Amber Truckee: Yeah. Um, and so the last time, not this last time, but the time before when we were in court, um, his lawyer had tried to withdraw from counsel. And when the judge asked why, um, he explained that he had not been paid,

[00:25:55] Eric Goranson: Shocking.

[00:25:56] Eric Goranson: Again, , another pattern, .

[00:25:59] Amber Truckee: [00:26:00] And so Terry objected until the judge, she did not want him to be able to withdraw and said it was basically his secretary's fault that he had made a payment and they lost it or something. And the lawyer basically said, I still would like to withdraw. Um, You know, and if we can get this payment stuff sorted out, I'd be happy to come back on the case.

[00:26:21] Amber Truckee: And so the, the judge granted that. And so we showed up, uh, this past week for sentencing and sat there for an hour only to finally realize that Terry's lawyer didn't show up to his apparent shock, um, cuz he still didn't pay him. So . So the judge, uh, had to reschedule his sentencing and get him a public defender because he qualified for one and he applied for one.

[00:26:48] Amber Truckee: But he, he seemed kind of surprised that his lawyer wasn't there, that no lawyer was there. I guess he thought you fill out the application for the public defender and like someone just magically appears a few days [00:27:00] later. I don't know. Um, but yeah, so the guy who came to my house and destroyed my property because I did not pay him within 24 hours.

[00:27:11] Amber Truckee: Decided not to pay his lawyer. Um, .

[00:27:14] Eric Goranson: Sweet irony.

[00:27:16] Amber Truckee: Yeah. Uh, and there's a really great clip out there, um, from

[00:27:19] Eric Goranson: K R D I wanted to, I was hoping you were gonna bring this up cuz this is, are you gonna,

[00:27:23] Amber Truckee: do you have the ability to play it? Cause it's pretty hilarious walking out of court Thursday unprompted.

[00:27:28] Eric Goranson: He spoke to our

[00:27:28] Amber Truckee: cameras

[00:27:29] Eric Goranson: for the first time.

[00:27:31] Amber Truckee: You know, there's people kidnapping babies out there and selling dope. Right. That's pretty great. M so

[00:27:39] Eric Goranson: this quote is the quote of the year,

[00:27:42] Amber Truckee: maybe the year's not over and we still have another court date, so, Yeah. True. Um, you know, and the thing is, is he knew the cameras were rolling. He looked right at the camera and you know,

[00:27:57] Eric Goranson: that's the best he had.[00:28:00]

[00:28:01] Amber Truckee: I just, I can't. And you know, I, I post on Facebook privately just to my friends and family to kind of update them on what's going on. And people just, every time are like, You're lying. Like, it it, like you said, it's just the story that keeps on giving. It never ends. It just, they just keep giving us more.

[00:28:16] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And thank you for putting on the friends and family page cuz we had a lot of fun with the memes after that. Did you? Oh, you, you all the memes of everybody after that news story of just. Hold on to your babies. Yeah, .

[00:28:31] Amber Truckee: Hide your babies. Hide your kids. Hide your dope. Uh, yep. So, so hopefully this will be the last of the legal stuff.

[00:28:42] Amber Truckee: Um, they did actually take me to court in January. They sued me. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . Um, and they won $150. Of the 1300 they were asking. And the judge, they wrote a letter saying it was for a friend of theirs who came over and replaced a hammer [00:29:00] arrester, which actually had nothing to do with anything they were doing, um, and dismissed the rest of their claim.

[00:29:05] Amber Truckee: I've just decided I'm not gonna bother suing them. I, I don't think they have $4,000. I don't really want to have to pay to garnish their wages. I don't really wanna check for $25 every month. Um,

[00:29:19] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Uh, I will give you my personal advice on that. Um, I've had people like that do me wrong and. Owed me a lot of money and I looked at it and went, You know, I don't want the stress and I can't get blood outta that turn.

[00:29:34] Amber Truckee: And that's exactly it. It's, it's, there is no, there is no money to get from them in, You know, if there, if I thought I was going to get it in one lump sum, would I still, I don't even know, to be honest with you. I look at the bathroom I have now, I think about how beautiful, grateful, and blessed I am. So many people.

[00:29:53] Amber Truckee: I mean, it's, it still blows my mind how many people chipped in, you know, whether it was donating materials, donating [00:30:00] time, whatever. Um, it got taken care of and now it's a better bathroom than I was ever going to get. So certainly I'm very lucky. I'm sure there's other people out there who've had contractors do them dirty and they have.

[00:30:11] Amber Truckee: Horrible things that they have to get fixed and nobody's coming to their, their rescue, nobody's coming to their aid. So do I really wanna go back to court and sue some people who aren't gonna have the money? And it's just, it's not worth it to me. So, yeah, hopefully after the time thing, it'll, it'll just be

[00:30:26] Eric Goranson: over.

[00:30:27] Eric Goranson: Yeah. But you know what the problem is, is I gotta gut hunt. So he's gonna go out and do this again. And we'll be watching more of

[00:30:34] Amber Truckee: this. Yep. I mean, I guess we'll see. Um, what happens, So the, the difference between him and Jordan is he does have a criminal record. He actually has two, uh, prior felony burglaries, so, Oh.

[00:30:48] Amber Truckee: Um, they were in Texas though. And so the way it was explained to me by a few people in Colorado is that Texas' legal system. Kind of wonky, and it's a lot of work to convert, uh, criminal, [00:31:00] uh, convictions from Texas to what we would equate it to here. And so the d had basically said to me, I've told them that if they decide to take this to trial, we will convert those charges and this will, he will be.

[00:31:12] Amber Truckee: Getting charged with his third. Um, but if he takes the plea deal, we'll consider it his first as far as the sentencing guidelines go. Um, but she strongly felt like he should serve some jail time and he would not accept any jail time, and it was a very, very minimal amount. Um, and he just flat out said, No, I'm not accepting a deal at jail time.

[00:31:32] Amber Truckee: And so she suggested, Well, why don't we let the judge decide if you get jail or not? And I guess he feels like there's no way the judge will give him any, uh, jail time. So he said, Sure. Great. Yeah, let me roll the dice and see what the judge comes up with. Um, which is interesting since he has two misdemeanor criminal.

[00:31:50] Amber Truckee: Charges out there. Wow.

[00:31:52] Eric Goranson: I'm just that guy. Can't read a room.

[00:31:55] Amber Truckee: No, no, no, no. Not reading. Not reading the room. [00:32:00] Well, not at all. So, um, the judge is very aware of the situation. She actually asked in one of the hearings, you know, she said, Is this the thing I saw all over the news last year? So, um, she's very aware and, you know, hopefully, I'm hoping he gets some jealous.

[00:32:16] Amber Truckee: Him, I feel like. being charged with felonies wasn't enough to keep him from doing it to two more people, so hopefully some jail time, even if it's a few weeks, I mean, Anything will help. Yeah. You, you can't just go to people's property and destroy their property to bully them and intimidate them. Like that's not like an okay thing to do.

[00:32:35] Amber Truckee: But

[00:32:35] Eric Goranson: that's where I don't, I don't have a lot of hope for this guy. Cause he's got two felonies. He's done it two times after you. I think he's gonna go until he's off

[00:32:46] Amber Truckee: in prison. I just worry that it'll escalate. I worry that right now, the thing that's stopped him from it going further is the fact. You know, he, his record isn't ruined yet, I guess.

[00:32:59] Amber Truckee: Mm-hmm. , [00:33:00] I'm worried that once he has this on his record, cuz his will not be expunged, so he will have this on his record permanently. Um, I'm worried that once this is on his record, And he is having a hard time finding a job and he's stressed out and the next time he decides to rage out on somebody, maybe he, you know, whatever it was that was holding him back from taking it further, maybe that that just disappears.

[00:33:20] Amber Truckee: And he says, Screw it. You know? Cause he obviously has some kind of an anger issue where when he's upset with you, his his go to destroy your, destroy your stuff. Um, Yeah. You know, and I worry that, I

[00:33:34] Eric Goranson: think, here's my guess, My guess is he's gonna do like when he left Texas. He's gonna go to another state that doesn't do any research on the contractor records.

[00:33:43] Eric Goranson: They're gonna pack up and move. They're gonna go out to some place that, that you just go in and fill out the paperwork and nobody does need background checks. And you check the boxes and now you're a contractor and he is gonna do it someplace else until he gets busted again. That's my guess. I mean,

[00:33:58] Amber Truckee: or they'll just work without even a [00:34:00] license.

[00:34:00] Amber Truckee: I mean, we all know there's people out there on Facebook that say, Hey, like I need this done. And people, Oh, I can do that for this much. And then people just have them come over and do it. Um, I certainly can see them going that route. I mean, they've already moved, um, out of the city. I have a feeling they're probably gonna move outta the state when this is over.

[00:34:17] Amber Truckee: Now that's a couple of years from now. I don't think that they can leave while they're on probation. Yep. You know, they could probably get away with having people hire them to come work in their houses without any kind of checking, even while they're on probation. So,

[00:34:33] Eric Goranson: Yep. Well, you know, here's the thing.

[00:34:36] Eric Goranson: You didn't get hurt. You've got a great bathroom now. And these guys have a long, horrible road of doing bad things ahead of 'em unless they change their ways. So you get to move on with life

[00:34:48] Amber Truckee: soon. Absolutely. I mean, and even, you know, this entire year that. That was kind of my thinking too. Um, you know, a lot of people were actually kind of upset when I said I wasn't gonna take them to court and sue them.

[00:34:59] Amber Truckee: [00:35:00] Cause everybody wanted to see that, right? Everybody wanted to see me take them to court and win and get my money back. But, you know, I've got a career, I have a house, I have a dog, I have friends, I have stuff I'm doing. I like to travel, I like to hike. I have all these great things going on in my life. And I had to think about the fact that like they, they don't, I mean, they really don't, their, their life at this point now has been at, at least for the time being diminished to dealing with this situation.

[00:35:23] Amber Truckee: Um, and so I don't feel like I need to exact any kind of revenge, you know what I mean? They, they're living pretty, I, I would imagine miserable lives. I can't imagine that going through this is fun in any way. I imagine it's probably very stressful. Um, And I don't have that stress. I get to relax and kind of just enjoy my life.

[00:35:44] Amber Truckee: So I don't really feel like I need to prove anything to anybody. I know that they did terrible work. I know that I already, you know, paid half of it. I wasn't trying to screw them out of any money. Um, and I, I don't certainly think that I need to, you know, make them pay. Like they're, they're paying, they're paying.

[00:35:59] Amber Truckee: So, [00:36:00] no. And

[00:36:00] Eric Goranson: why give them the satisfaction of robbing you of all that time that you could be out doing all the things you love while you're sitting there in a courtroom trying to. Hammer out something that you're gonna have a judgment and literally have no way to collect on it.

[00:36:12] Amber Truckee: Nothing, at least now, probably for the next two years at the very least.

[00:36:16] Amber Truckee: So, um, yeah, just seemed really pointless. Um, you know, and I wish more was given to Jordan. Yes. Do I wish more will be given to Terry than when he's probably gonna get Yes, but you know, they probably wish it was less so. Um, You know, the, the, the state is gonna compromise with them and get what they can get without having to go into a long, lengthy trial.

[00:36:38] Amber Truckee: And initially I was like, you know, at the beginning of this year, I was like, That's fine. Whatever. Go to trial, I'll go to trial, it's fine. You know? Yeah. Kinda ready to fight, you know? And now I'm just kind of like, thank you for not taking this to trial. Cause I just wanted to be over. I do, I just, I just wanna enjoy my bathroom and have it be over.

[00:36:55] Amber Truckee: So.

[00:36:57] Eric Goranson: I wanna be there when, uh, you and Williams start doing [00:37:00] on your, working on your bathroom. That'll be the fun part, right?

[00:37:03] Amber Truckee: William Allen White. If you are listening, , where are you are doing this? Talked about it a few times. Um, we've not made plans yet, but this is me officially calling him out. Um, let's get this and get it going.

[00:37:21] Amber Truckee: Cause I wanna, but I could go better bathroom than Terry and Jordan. I wanna prove, um, that it's not, you know, I mean, not to say it's not hard. I saw what Jason and, and Jeremy and Matt did. It's insanely intricate and, and like the measurements that they were taking, I'm like, No, not for me. Not for me. Um, but I also still don't think I would've done this bad pajamas and Jordan.

[00:37:46] Amber Truckee: So I've said that a lot. I feel like I

[00:37:49] Eric Goranson: need to prove I do it. And, uh, you know, I've known William since I was what, 12. So he's gonna hear this for

[00:37:54] Amber Truckee: sure. Oh, good. Good. We go. You heard it. You heard William. [00:38:00]

[00:38:00] Eric Goranson: Yep. We're calling you brother, so that would be awesome. It's, that's great.

[00:38:09] Eric Goranson: Well, Amber, thanks for taking the time today to go through this, and I know it's not fun, but, uh, I think there's, so you can help so many people. By telling the story of your pain so people can learn that, Wow, look what happened here. I better do a better job of researching who I'm bringing into my home.

[00:38:27] Eric Goranson: And, and so these guys don't end up in somebody else's house.

[00:38:30] Amber Truckee: Yeah, definitely. Um, you know, I, it's weird cuz I think before this happened to me, I always thought people were just being really extra when they were like, I need references and actually calling them. I'm like, really? Hire somebody. Um, but I guess I did not ever think in my wildest dreams that it could go this badly.

[00:38:51] Amber Truckee: You know? It just didn't occur to me. I've heard of like contractor horror stories, but they usually include the contractor just not finishing and taking off of the money or something. Yeah. [00:39:00] Um, you know, and I felt like this was a, a small local business, enough people on Facebook had used them and recommended them that I thought, Great.

[00:39:09] Amber Truckee: You know, and now it's like, well, were those people, their friends, their cousins? Um, yeah. Yes. Yeah, right. A couple of those people reached out to me after this incident. Two of them actually, and apologized to me and said, I actually recommended them and I just wanted to say sorry. And I was like, Well, why?

[00:39:26] Amber Truckee: Why did you recommend them? And both said that when they first started working for them, um, They actually did a really good job and they noticed that they, they seemed like they had been kind of struggling lately and they were just trying to help them out and hoping they could get back on their feet, and I don't know what that meant, but I can guess.

[00:39:43] Amber Truckee: Um,

[00:39:44] Eric Goranson: yep, we can, we can read between the lines. Yeah.

[00:39:48] Amber Truckee: Yeah. Um, and they just wanted to apologize to me and say sorry for recommending them. And I, I, I had to bite my tongue cuz you know, I'm like, I literally hired them because you recommended them. Um, but, you know, that I think [00:40:00] serves as a lesson. If I would've called those people and talked to those people on the phone, would they have said the same thing?

[00:40:04] Amber Truckee: I don't know. You know, Now I've got their phone number, I know their name. I'm talking to them on the phone. It's a little bit harder to. Um, fudge or lie to, you know, try to help some people out. At that point you kind of feel like you have to be honest, you know, So, you know, definitely going forward, call reference.

[00:40:21] Amber Truckee: Call references. I mean, and you know

[00:40:23] Eric Goranson: that, that reference you call too, since you're always calling cell phone to cell phone, right? Mm-hmm. , have them text you a couple pictures of what their project looked like. Yes. They'll love sharing it with you.

[00:40:34] Amber Truckee: Yep, absolutely. Uh, Jeremy Johnson, one of the guys that did the, the new bathroom actually, um, asked me if he could use me as our reference.

[00:40:42] Amber Truckee: And I said, Absolutely. And I've had some people call and they did exactly that. They talked to me on the phone, they asked me questions. Um, Felt a little interrogating. I was nervous. I'm like, I don't wanna say the wrong thing. Is that foolproof? No, but goodness, it took five minutes to do that and I wish I would've done that [00:41:00] exactly before I hired them and I didn't.

[00:41:01] Amber Truckee: So a good piece of advice that you're given folks to do that due diligence.

[00:41:07] Eric Goranson: No cost and no question. Well, Amber, thanks for coming on today. I really appreciate it and we'll talk later when, uh, this goes, uh, to sentencing cuz I'm curious to see what happens.

[00:41:19] Amber Truckee: Yeah. Um, I don't remember the exact date.

[00:41:21] Amber Truckee: Sometime in October, so we'll be talking in about a month

[00:41:23] Eric Goranson: probably. All right. Thanks again. And uh, stay tuned guys. We'll see what happens and I'll update you when I can. I'm Eric G and you've been listening to Around the House