Cedric Martin is a Crook: Do Not Hire Him to Repair Your Hurricane-Damaged House
Hurricane season is upon us with Ernesto looking to threaten some part of Florida. The worst of the hurricane season is still left to go so don’t be fooled by the lackluster appearance of storms so far. Houses will be damaged and rebuilding will be called for. I speak from experience when I urgently and insistently warn you not to hire Cedric Martin to help rebuild your house. Cedric Martin is a crook who will steal your money and leave town.
My house was damaged by Hurricane Ivan two years ago. It wasn’t major damage, but enough so that we got a nice insurance settlement and set to improving the damage as well as shoring up the house against future hurricanes. We received the name and number of Cedric Martin from our roofers and called him. Cedric Martin showed up and was charming beyond belief, personable, affable and knowledgeable. He knows what he’s talking about. He just doesn’t do what he talks about.
Cedric Martin hired a coke-snorting lazy-ass to oversee his employees. Cedric Martin promised to do a great job, even promising to do some things for free after it was determined we would need more work required. We invited Cedric Martin into our house, served him drinks and food and he stabbed us in the back. The work that was done…have to admit it’s quality stuff. As I said, he knows what he’s talking about and he did some of the thing he promised. Did them well, though it took far too long.
But Cedric Martin was paid to buy new carpeting and install it in our house. He kept promising and promising and then one day he just stopped showing up and answering phone calls. He owed us 2700 dollars worth of carpeting and labor. I set about trying to track him down, calling him incessantly and using up all the time available on his answering machines and voice mail. Then his cell phone number came up as disconnected. I managed to find another number to reach him at. Finally, I just kept calling over and over, threatening him with jail and telling him I was on my to the house he’d rented. He returned my phone call as I was on my way there. Cedric Martin said he had some of my money and we met in the driveway and damn if he didn’t charm me into believing his story again. The $400 he gave me helped. I figured, after all, since the address he gave me wasn’t valid, but was an abandoned house, that he could have skipped and I’d never been able to track him down. So Cedric Martin gave me $400 and almost two years later still owes me $2300.
Cedric Martin lived in New Orleans at this time. It is my fervent hope that he still lived there a year ago and that he lost everything in Katrina. Yes, I know, that’s petty and mean, but there it is. However, I feel that Cedric Martin didn’t get wiped out in Katrina. Weird story. But true. My family and I were inside the Norwegian attraction at Epcot last October, waiting in line to get on the ride. My cell phone rang and I answered it. It was Cedric Martin! And he told me he would be coming to pay me back everything he owned me-plus interest-in a few weeks.
Needless to say, Cedric Martin is a devilish little prankster as well as a crook. He never showed up. He never will. I cannot urgently enough warn you against hiring Cedric Martin to do anything for you. Do not let him near your house. Do not pay him any money. He will take it and run.
