by Bea Peterson
Dennis Murray of Bovie Hill Road, owner of Valley Hearth and Pellet, Inc. on Church St. was charged by Hoosick Falls Police with Grand Larceny and Scheme to Defraud. He appeared in Hoosick Falls court and was remanded to the Rensselaer County Jail. On Saturday he was released on $25,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in Court again on November 13.
“Conned Me Twice”
Dorothy Pitt of Oak St. said she was the first to involve the police. “In short, I heard about a week ago, at football practice, that Murray had already scammed someone out of a stove they had paid cash for. I had ordered six tons of pellets from him in March for a September delivery.” She gave him a check for $1,410, which he had cashed. “I had tried calling him, but he did not return my calls. Finally I called the phone number written on the paper on the door of the business. I didn’t tell him my name, but told him I was interested in buying a stove I saw in the window of his store. He said he was in and out of there but would meet me at the store Monday at 6 pm.” Accompanied by two Hoosick Falls police officers, she told Murray she wanted her money back. He said the money was tied up in the business. “Since I had left the ‘pay to’ line empty, he had filled it in with his own name, not a business name,” she said. He called his wife, and she brought him his checkbook. He told Pitt he would write her a check, but he would have to post date it, and she agreed. The next morning when she took a close look at the check it was post dated October 25, 2009. “So he conned me twice,” she concluded. Pitt and her husband, who is a quadriplegic, have electric heat in their home. Their electric bills run about $300 a month in the winter. They use a pellet stove to keep that bill down. Instead of having a stockpile of pellets, Pitt said “I will have to buy week by week now or paycheck to paycheck. And we have two little kids.”
Expect More Victims
Hoosick Falls Police Chief Robert Whalen said on Tuesday they were up to 25 complaints against Murray. By Wednesday it was 29, and he expects the number of victims to climb to at least 45 and the amount of money they have lost to exceed $50,000. “People ordered pellets that were never delivered. Some paid for stoves they never got.” The amounts lost range from $280 to $4,000. He was just hearing of contractors that were owed large sums for work done on the Church St. building. They are looking through the business books to see where the money has gone. “We wonder what he did with the money,” said Whalen. So far the complaints have all come from the pellet and stove business. Police have not begun to investigate the WeBay business where Murray sold items for people on eBay.
The Department’s investigation into Murray revealed that there are civil law suits against him in Berlin, NY, for $100,000 for a stove and pellet business he was financed and set up for at Cowee’s. “There was a fire in Berlin, too,” said the Chief. “Two years ago there was a fire at his house, and 20 years ago there was a fire in a machine shop of some kind he had in Cambridge. That fire was deemed suspicious, but no arrests were ever made.”
Bill Gaillard is another person who never received pellets from Murray. “We ordered from him because his price was $75 a ton cheaper because he was buying in bulk and he would deliver to the house. A wood stove and a pellet stove are the primary heat for the Gaillards. Gaillard paid up front $675 for three tons of pellets on May 10. “I began to have a bad feeling the end of June,” he said. “Then in July the person who worked for him said they couldn’t get the driver on the phone, but they would be delivered on Monday, then nothing, then nothing the next Monday and on and on. Now it’s difficult to get pellets,” he said. He was able to get one ton from Baker’s.
Gaillard has heard of another person who is out $4,800. “It’s a learning process,” he said.
Pittsfield Business Steps Up
Joseph Galok, owner of Berkshire Fireplace Pool & Spa sent a letter to the Hoosick Falls Police Department after he read an article in a daily paper about Murray’s customers. In his letter he said he is concerned for the people who have lost their money and have no stoves or pellets. He is willing to sell them stoves or order them pellets at cost if they bring their order slips from Valley Hearth with them. His business is located at 1420 North St. in Pittsfield, MA. The phone number is 413-442-5110.