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How to prevent scams in aftermath of hailstorm

Posted at 7:43 PM, Jun 13, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-13 21:43:44-04

An overnight hailstorm wreaked havoc on cars, houses, sidings and roofs in Fountain early Wednesday morning.

With such a destructive storm, comes the potential for scams.

"It was pretty noisy, I’m not going to lie to you, it was pretty noisy, I couldn’t sleep for like two hours," Kwang Choi, a hail victim said.

Choi lives in the barracks on Fort Carson. 

"Any car but my car, that’s what I was thinking!" he said.

And this is what he woke up to this morning.

"The back windshield is obviously unserviceable, yeah I need to get it replaced and the front windshield is also broken, it’s got cracks everywhere," he said.

As is recommended, he filed his insurance claim right away and took it to a local repair shop.

"Go to a shop, don’t do somebody coming door to door or meeting you in a parking lot, don’t do any of that, definitely want to go to an actual location where people have technicians working there and you can actually talk to people," Brando Procell, a supervisor at Bumper Doc said.

Bumper Doc is all too familiar with hail storms, it took them almost a year and a half to get through every claim from the last devastating hail storm back in 2016.

"The phones are blowing off the hooks, all of people have busted out glass," Procell said.

And this, was the culprit of all of the damage.

"When they first hit, these have melted already considerably, but when they first hit, they were definitely handball size," Rose Hickerson, a hail victim said.
Hickerson spent most of her day cleaning up.

"We haven’t even had the roof checked yet, everything in the backyard, the patio furniture, all of the kids toys, their playground set, the shed, we have a metal shed back there and of course all three of these vehicles," she said.

In order to prevent getting scammed on home repairs, the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department says to make sure your contractor is licensed.

And if a contractor pushes you to sign a contract quickly or asks you to pull the permit yourself, those are red flags.

"Of course you research anybody that you’re going to use, and it’s not my first rodeo so I’m careful about it but you can’t be too cautious either," she said.

To check and see if a contractor is licensed through the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, click here.