{"id":373824,"date":"2026-07-15T09:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/373824\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T09:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:47:08","slug":"bcso-warns-residents-of-contractor-accused-of-stealing-thousands-of-dollars-in-electrical-work-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/373824\/","title":{"rendered":"BCSO warns residents of contractor accused of stealing thousands of dollars in electrical work scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sergio Alejandro Morales-Villareal is wanted for theft of property valued between $2,500 and $30,000, according to the sheriff\u2019s office<\/p>\n<p>Sheriff issues SCAM ALERT warning public of scammers impersonating high-ranking BCSO officials (Bexar County Sheriffs Office, Associated Press, KSAT)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">BEXAR COUNTY, Texas \u2013 The Bexar County Sheriff\u2019s Office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1JiLdJxHAy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1JiLdJxHAy\/\">warned residents<\/a> on Tuesday about a contractor scam that has left multiple residents out of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The suspect, identified as Sergio Alejandro Morales-Villareal, is wanted for theft of property valued between $2,500 and $30,000, according to the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Morales-Villareal allegedly collected \u201clarge upfront payments\u201d from multiple households for electrical work and made repeated excuses for delays before he eventually stopped responding to clients altogether, the sheriff\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">A family lost around $6,000, BCSO said. One person lost $1,500, while another lost $1,100.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The sheriff\u2019s office suggests the following tips before hiring any contractor:<\/p>\n<p>Verify licenses <\/p>\n<p>Avoid making large upfront payments<\/p>\n<p>Keep copies of all receipts and messages<\/p>\n<p>Watch for delays or sudden silence<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Anyone who believes they were targeted in the scam is asked to contact the Bexar County Sheriff\u2019s Office at 210-335-6000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Read also:<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 kfUEDb copyright\">Copyright 2026 by KSAT &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p>About the AuthorGabby Jimenez headshot<a class=\"Link-PukYsz7Y__LinkBase-sc-scvrjz-0 gQZqgJ\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ksat.com\/team\/GJIE9RFO0GJW09UWER09WEFWEE\/\" title=\"View Gabby Jimenez&#039;s full profile\" itemprop=\"url\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gabby Jimenez<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 duhyRF bxSMlJ\">Gabby Jimenez is a digital journalist at KSAT. Gabby is a San Antonio native and joined the KSAT team in January 2025. A proud LSU alumna, she has reported for newspapers in Louisiana and Virginia, earning a Virginia Press Association award for Combination Photo and Story in 2024. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sergio Alejandro Morales-Villareal is wanted for theft of property valued between $2,500 and $30,000, according to the sheriff\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4755,698,294,82,84,83,5793],"class_list":["post-373824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-bcso","tag-bexar-county","tag-crime","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-scam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}