For about 15 minutes, Crystal Luke sat frozen in her closet as a tornado ripped apart her small LaGrange home.
When she and her rescue dog, Layla, exited their three-bedroom house on Jan. 12, 2023, both were in a state of shock.
“I came out and stood there in the front yard and just started screaming,” Luke told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
They had survived, but the house was heavily damaged: walls were pulled down, windows were blown out and the remainder was pockmarked with holes from flying debris. Her garage door had been twisted like a sheet of aluminum foil and the interior of her garage was ransacked. Miraculously, her car parked inside was not seriously damaged.
The house was rendered uninhabitable.
At least seven radar-confirmed tornadoes touched down throughout Georgia that day, according to the National Weather Service, leaving two people dead and dozens more injured or displaced. Once the storms passed, Luke and many others faced a second, figurative whirlwind.
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Credit: Steve Schaefer
She was booked into a hotel by her insurance company, then moved to a second hotel where she spent the following month. All the while, she was struggling with a shingles outbreak that began just before the storms hit.
Luke then began navigating the insurance claims process and decided to deal with federal and state emergency management officials on her own. She searched for temporary housing that could accommodate Layla and sorted out her healthcare needs. She worried about her house, where a tarp was the only thing protecting it from the elements. Then, she came down with COVID-19.
Finally, Luke thought the worst was over, but she points to the day she hired her contractor, 60-year-old Thomas E. Bouhan of Suwanee, as the moment her nightmare truly began.
Introduction to Thomas Bouhan
Luke, along with several other Troup County residents, said she was soon introduced to a roofing contractor who recommended a company called Veterans Roofing, run by Bouhan.
In the ensuing months, multiple customers reported Bouhan to the Troup sheriff’s office, alleging he took their money and abandoned their jobs without completing any work. Bouhan was arrested twice in late 2023 by Troup deputies on multiple charges, including theft by conversion and elder abuse, according to his arrest warrants.
When he was arrested for the second time in December, he was also charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as a RICO violation. In that count, Bouhan is accused of a pattern of activities used to acquire money from multiple victims. According to his warrant, he is suspected of committing at least six acts of racketeering in Troup County and more throughout the state. He was released on bond.
The Troup sheriff’s office did not respond to requests for more information, including Bouhan’s bail amount after his second arrest. In November, he was released on $2,000 bond, according to his booking sheet.
Troup District Attorney Herb Cranford told the AJC his office had received Bouhan’s case file from law enforcement and said his team is reviewing it for prosecution. The review is still pending, but if they decide to move forward, their case will be presented to a grand jury to decide on formal charges.
Bouhan is not facing any charges related to his dealings with Luke, but she has filed a complaint with the district attorney’s office. Bouhan and Veterans Roofing did not respond to questions sent by the AJC.
Desperate victims prepaid thousands of dollars
The initial warrants stated that Bouhan would develop relationships through two companies he owned, Veterans Roofing and Simpli Roofing. He is accused of taking money in multiple ways.
In some cases, he is charged with accepting money and not performing any work. When a refund was demanded, Bouhan would allegedly keep 15% or hire subcontractors to do the work, then refuse to pay the subcontractors or suppliers. The refusal to pay would sometimes lead to liens being placed against victims’ homes, the warrants said.
Bouhan is also charged with exploiting an elder person after he allegedly was paid nearly $10,000 to replace the roof of a LaGrange couple, ages 72 and 82, prior to the tornadoes. According to his warrants, no work had been completed on the roof more than a year after he was paid.
Another warrant shows that Bouhan accepted a payment of nearly $18,000 to replace another LaGrange man’s roof in March 2023. By the time he was arrested in November, Bouhan had not completed any work or repaid any of the money.
Publicly available records show that Bouhan already faces multiple liens due to civil and small claims judgments against him. In 2010, a federal tax lien was placed against him for more than $230,000. Since then, he has been ruled against in six civil and small claims judgments, and he collectively owes those creditors more than $60,000.
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
Jobs poorly done
As a retired apartment property manager, Luke said she understands how to deal with construction and maintenance projects. She was able to get some work completed on her home after she hired a lawyer to hound her contractors, but she also transferred Bouhan an even more significant sum than those reported in his other warrants: more than $50,000.
Luke’s walls have been rebuilt and her windows reinstalled, but she said much of the work performed by Bouhan was shoddy and not up to code. In some cases, she said it was dangerous. When she had a new dryer installed, the contractors did not add a vent. Luke said the exhaust port was left pressed against the wall, with nowhere for the hot air and lint to escape, which is a serious fire hazard.
She moved back into her home in July but has noticed a variety of issues since she returned. She worries about mold in the walls and showed off gaps in the windows where they were incorrectly installed. Her kitchen cabinets still have visible signs of water damage and the home’s new siding is buckling in several places. At certain points around her roofline, the soffits were never installed under the eaves, leaving the interior structure of her walls open to the elements.
Luke estimates the work she paid for is about 60% complete.
Storms forced victims into vulnerable positions
Luke paid Bouhan relatively small amounts based on her initial insurance payouts to start working on her home. She also received assistance from her community. As a longtime member of the Troup County Democrats, her friends and other members of the political organization came to her aid with food, water, clothes, tarps and other supplies. She also started a GoFundMe page, which helped with her immediate expenses.
Then, just a couple of weeks after the storms, Luke said she fell ill with COVID-19. While she was sick, she received her largest lump-sum payment from her insurer: a check for $47,000. She had already turned over nearly $10,000 to Bouhan at that point, but she knew she was supposed to deposit the check with her mortgage company to be held in escrow for contractor payments.
Luke said she told Bouhan about the check and that she was sick, and he offered to help her deposit it. She said he gave her a ride to the post office and convinced her to endorse the check over to him, telling her he would transfer the money to her mortgage account.
“Literally, at one point, he said, ‘Don’t worry your pretty little head,’” she added.
That transfer never came through, Luke said.
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
The unseen toll
More than a year later, most of Luke’s possessions remain packed.
“I have a garage full of boxes,” she said. “That’s why my car’s not parked in there.”
Luke said it’s hard to unpack when her house feels incomplete. Her anger and frustration with her contractors led her to what she called “risky behavior” that she never expected of herself.
At one point, she got in her car and chased after the roofer who referred her to Bouhan as he drove by in his truck. The man reported Luke to the police and she was pulled over as she pursued him.
The officer who stopped Luke gave her a warning, but the episode left her shaken. Luke was the one with $50,000 missing, yet she found herself explaining to a LaGrange police officer that she wasn’t a stalker.
“I thought, ‘This is going to get me in trouble,’” Luke said.
What comes next
Luke was thrilled when she heard the news of Bouhan’s first arrest in November. She said she has been in touch with the district attorney’s office and has reported Bouhan for theft by conversion.
“I think I’ve figured out that they owe me probably about ... $22,000,” Luke said.
“But if I don’t get that, I just want them to go to jail,” she added with a laugh.
Luke has found great comfort in Layla, her rescue dog she’s owned for about seven years. She also recently got a Siamese kitten named Allie, and she’s working through her trauma with regular therapy sessions.
Luke’s advice to others who suffer disasters, natural or otherwise, is to avoid being swept up in the urgency of the situation.
“Nothing should ever be decided” in the immediate aftermath, Luke said. “Give yourself time to survey the landscape. Do a little more research and do your homework.”
Luke also said disaster victims should never underestimate the capabilities of potential scammers, who crop up at a time of need with a veneer of respectability and kindness.
“Oh, what a wicked web they weave,” Luke said.
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