{"id":235972,"date":"2026-04-17T18:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235972\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T18:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:52:08","slug":"unlicensed-contractor-accused-of-taking-11k-and-leaving-stuart-kitchen-job-unfinished-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235972\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlicensed contractor accused of taking $11K and leaving Stuart kitchen job unfinished"},"content":{"rendered":"

STUART, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 An unlicensed contractor in Stuart has been arrested for allegedly defrauding unsuspecting homeowners in a botched kitchen renovation that left them out of pocket $11,000 and unfinished work.<\/p>\n

The Stuart Police Department <\/a>announced on Friday that the incident began in April 2025 when the victims entered a contract with John Pedatella, who claimed to be a licensed contractor.<\/p>\n

According to the Police Department, renovations began in May 2025, but by September of that year, the project was still unfinished. The victims reportedly had already paid Pedatella a total of $11,000, only to find the work incomplete and the contractor unresponsive.<\/p>\n

Frustrated and seeking answers, the victims reported the incident to the police in February 2026. <\/p>\n

See also: ‘You won’t make it out of Martin County’: Fentanyl, firearms seized during traffic stop<\/a><\/p>\n

Detectives reported launching an investigation, reviewing the contract, communications between the parties involved, and state licensing records.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, following their investigation, police, with assistance from the Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office Warrants Division, arrested Pedatella. <\/p>\n

Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n

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He now faces charges for engaging in contracting without the required registration or certification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 An unlicensed contractor in Stuart has been arrested for allegedly defrauding unsuspecting homeowners in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-235972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}