\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA Cape Coral man is accused of stealing more than one million dollars from residents in Lee and Charlotte counties who were struggling to rebuild after hurricanes Irma and Ian.According to the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Reife Petersen, owner of JKS Construction and Engineering, allegedly defrauded at least 24 people \u2014 many of them elderly \u2014 over the past four years. Investigators say Petersen took deposits for roof and home repairs but never completed the work.Court records show Petersen was arrested Wednesday in Charlotte County and now faces 20 felony charges. His contractor\u2019s license was revoked last year. He also faces a separate, ongoing case accusing him of scamming a Charlotte County woman out of nearly $200,000.Among those affected are David and Ariel Burnham of Cape Coral, who say they paid Petersen $11,000 to repair their roof after Hurricane Ian \u2014 but the work was never finished.\u201cWe were promised over and over again that it was about to get done next week,\u201d said David Burnham.\u201cNext week, next week\u2014until it never happened,\u201d added Ariel Burnham.The Burnhams say Petersen started the job, then disappeared without refunding their money.\u201cNo, we didn\u2019t get our money back,\u201d Ariel said. \u201cAnd do we think we\u2019re going to? Probably not. But we do think there\u2019s going to be justice.\u201d David Burnham said what frustrates him most is how many vulnerable people were taken advantage of.\u201cFor anyone to look a sweet girl like her \u2014 or an elderly woman \u2014 in the eye, take their money, and walk away \u2026 that\u2019s the worst of the worst.\u201dThe Burnhams hope sharing their story will protect others. David Burnham advised, “Go find a contractor that truly cares and takes an interest. There’s so many people out there that are just in it to make money.”The Burnhams also extended forgiveness, saying, “If he’s watching this, if his family is watching this, we want you guys to know that there is forgiveness available from us. And most importantly for Jesus.”DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app for your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A Cape Coral man is accused of stealing more than one million dollars from residents in Lee and Charlotte counties who were struggling to rebuild after hurricanes Irma and Ian.<\/p>\n
According to the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Reife Petersen, owner of JKS Construction and Engineering, allegedly defrauded at least 24 people \u2014 many of them elderly \u2014 over the past four years. Investigators say Petersen took deposits for roof and home repairs but never completed the work.<\/p>\n
Court records show Petersen was arrested Wednesday in Charlotte County and now faces 20 felony charges. His contractor\u2019s license was revoked last year. He also faces a separate, ongoing case accusing him of scamming a Charlotte County woman out of nearly $200,000.<\/p>\n
Among those affected are David and Ariel Burnham of Cape Coral, who say they paid Petersen $11,000 to repair their roof after Hurricane Ian \u2014 but the work was never finished.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were promised over and over again that it was about to get done next week,\u201d said David Burnham.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext week, next week\u2014until it never happened,\u201d added Ariel Burnham.<\/p>\n
The Burnhams say Petersen started the job, then disappeared without refunding their money.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, we didn\u2019t get our money back,\u201d Ariel said. \u201cAnd do we think we\u2019re going to? Probably not. But we do think there\u2019s going to be justice.\u201d <\/p>\n
David Burnham said what frustrates him most is how many vulnerable people were taken advantage of.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor anyone to look a sweet girl like her \u2014 or an elderly woman \u2014 in the eye, take their money, and walk away \u2026 that\u2019s the worst of the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Burnhams hope sharing their story will protect others. David Burnham advised, “Go find a contractor that truly cares and takes an interest. There’s so many people out there that are just in it to make money.”<\/p>\n
The Burnhams also extended forgiveness, saying, “If he’s watching this, if his family is watching this, we want you guys to know that there is forgiveness available from us. And most importantly for Jesus.”<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a> for your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cape Coral man is accused of stealing more than one million dollars from residents in Lee and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,21477,21478,18364,104,1387,3038,1179,6027,21479,213,2391,21475,21476,6411,221],"class_list":["post-29177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-charlotte-county-clerk","tag-check","tag-engineering","tag-entertainment","tag-fraud","tag-grand-theft","tag-gulf-coast-news-app","tag-hurricane-ian","tag-jks-construction","tag-late-news","tag-man","tag-reife-petersen","tag-roof-repair","tag-victim","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29177","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=29177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}