Accused Scam Artist Resurfaces Years After Previous Complaints
DENVER (CBS4) - After keeping a low profile for the last seven years, an accused scam artist appears to be up to his old tricks. Cipriano Garcia was the subject of a 2012 CBS4 report after numerous people accused him of taking their furniture and money for upholstery work he never finished.
After CBS4 confronted him, he disappeared leaving behind a storage unit full of furniture belonging to people he allegedly ripped off.
There were never any legal repercussions for his actions in 2012. In 2018, he decided to once again offer his upholstery skills.
John Slaughter opened Tribe Tattoo in 2001 and was ready for his next big adventure: a restaurant directly next door. Garcia lived in the neighborhood and Slaughter decided to give him a chance. He never checked Garcia's name and therefore had no idea his reputation was less than ideal.
"We were like, 'you know what? Let's just go with the underdog. Let's let this guy do it.' You know? He had a portfolio of some photos of booths he had done previously. We just felt like we wanted to give this guy an opportunity and help support him," said Slaughter. "The guy is 70 years old or something so it's like, I'm thinking… and he lives right behind me, how could this possibly happen?"
Garcia offered to upholster booths for Slaughter in October of 2018. Slaughter paid him for materials up front and Garcia gave him nothing, but excuses.
"Saying that we gave him the wrong measurements this and that, whatever when in all actuality there was nothing actually built at all."
With no results by January, Slaughter was growing very skeptical. He had already paid $7,000. Finally, Garcia brought in one leather booth. To date, it's the only thing Slaughter has seen from the money he paid.
"He has $7,000 in total right now for a five-foot long booth."
Slaughter says Garcia stopped answering phone calls. He eventually had to hire a new company to make the booths.
When Slaughter finally decided to look into Garcia's record, it didn't take him long to see that there were others who claimed Garcia had ripped them off.
"I told my wife, I was like, 'what were we thinking?' All we had to do was Google him and see that he ripped somebody off, and I would've not used him. Instead, this one just kind of slipped through the cracks."
CBS4 made numerous attempts to talk to Garcia including confronting him outside his Denver home, but he refused to comment.
Slaughter says he would love his money back, but would even be happy just to receive the materials he paid for.
He plans to file a police report, but is skeptical it will even make an impact. He hopes his story will serve as a warning to others.
"What does he really have that I can go after him for? Right now, it's just his reputation and maybe people around town can kind of see that, you know? This is a man that takes advantage of people."
