Quake-Repair Crooks Roam West Valley : Crime: Men offer discounts to fix walls and driveways, then disappear after being paid half the price in advance, police say.

Two truckloads of men have been roaming the west San Fernando Valley offering discount prices to repair earthquake-damaged block walls and driveways, only to disappear after persuading homeowners to pay them half the costs up front, police said Thursday.

“We’re trying to get the word out so more people don’t get ripped off,” said Sgt. Frank Mezquita of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division, adding that homeowners have been conned out of thousands of dollars. “It seems like a lot of people let their guards down, and these people are taking them a block at a time.”

In the past few days, Mezquita said, two crews have arrived in unmarked trucks and approached homeowners with an offer to make repairs for about half the normal cost. Repairing a six-foot block wall should cost about $15 per linear foot, according to building officials.

The men have told homeowners that a city building permit would not be needed--even though it is--and they have started working immediately, breaking up cement or tearing down remaining pieces of fallen block walls, Mezquita said.

“People think they are getting a good deal, and the next thing you know they are getting ripped off,” Mezquita said. “They get 50% (of the money) for the jobs and the people never see them again.

“They have trucks, they are dressed casually, and when they are asked about a contractor’s license they try to avoid it by saying, ‘You don’t need a permit.’ One guy seems to act like he doesn’t speak much English.”

Police said they received about 30 calls within the last couple of days, with one Canoga Park man complaining that seven people on his block were taken in by the fraud. Mezquita would not identify the victims.

Most of the complaints have come from the West Valley, although police believe the men may also have struck in the East Valley and as far away as Arcadia.

“There’s nobody being exempted from this,” Mezquita said. “They’re all getting hit. These guys are pretty smooth talkers.”

Larry Chafe, assistant regional deputy for the state Contractors’ License Board’s central region, which covers the San Fernando Valley, said he was not aware of the current scam, but added that several complaints have been filed about unlicensed contractors working in the Valley.

Chafe said state law limits advance payments to contractors to $1,000 or 10% of the total bill, whichever is less. Hiring an unlicensed contractor is a big risk, he said, because “you just don’t know if that person is going to show up after paying him some money.”

“These guys have nothing to lose because they don’t have a license to lose to begin with.”