Originally published at: Rogue roofer smashes tiles then offers to repair them | Boing Boing
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On a regular basis, I start to go down a mental rabbit hole of wondering whether pest control folks in NYC are running underground waterbug farms and regularly releasing them when business gets slow… I have to back away immediately or I know I would end up dead in an alley with a briefcase of my “evidence” and an undercover FBI agent shaking their head at how things got this far.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger started his fortune in a similar way. He and fellow bodybuilder Franco Columbu had a roofing and brick laying business. In an interview on The Tonight Show he laughed about he and Franco would go up on the roof to “examine” the situqtion and use their strength to damage chimneys that they could then tell the homeowner needed work. He laughed out loud about it.
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BRAINSPORE!!! Hilarious. This classic Far Side was the first thing that came to mind when I read this story. One of my favourites actually but there are so many great ones. Thanks for letting me know that I am not the only one who can free associate with 40 year old comic strips.
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A hole has appeared in a Christchurch roof, police are looking into it.
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See also – all the tire shops in various countries who spread sharp objects in the roadway.
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Reminds me of a story that chimney masons would purposefully leave bricks in the airflow to restrict it.
Later once sufficient soot has built up it would cause it to not work well enough and start smoking out the living area. Of course the chimney masons are called for cleaning/repair.
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This is called “targeted” advertising.
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{Brief tangent:
“Roberta takes on a dust rhino” lived on our fridge for aaages.
Like Roberta, we are/were lousy housekeepers and frequently encounter dust rhinos of our own.}
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This Schwarzenegger anecdote really got on my nerves, because that’s a dick move. My grandparents and their neighbors were leery of roofers who would advertise free inspections for just that reason. I guess those jerks figured no one would go up on the roof to check it beforehand and after they were finished.
My grandparents wound up with a chimney that was partially blocked, but instead of smoke in the living areas, they had CO exposure. They realized there was a problem after their parrot suddenly died and the vet told them why. Now I’m wondering how the chimney problem started. 
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I live by what I refer to as the Quentin Crisp principle
“There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn’t get any worse.”
― Quentin Crisp
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Or - presenting your own show on Fox News.
(This statement must not, under any circumstances, be construed as vocational counselling.)
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A time honored marketing tradition.
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1998 and I’m in the lobby of a car stereo business, waiting for my car’s work to be finished up. While there I flipped through one of the auto electronics trade magazines and discovered that it had a humor section relating actual events. One particular story caught my eye, turned my stomach, and caused me to forever do my own tweaking and installations: An installer, while fiddling in the engine compartment, accidently punctured the radiator with his power drill. A fix was made then and there that was more cover-up than 100% and finished up with “and the customer never knew.” Ha, fucking ha. Again, this story was in the humor section of a trade journal.
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Quentin Crisp was a genius. I will fight anyone who disagrees
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“People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion but the conversation ends at a conspiracy against the public.”
-Definitely from the source rather than from playing lots of Civ4, definitely.
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Came for this!
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There were some dashcam videos going around a few years ago, two turning lanes, and one car would rub against the other, and then practically force the other driver to turn into an autobody shop lot… it happened twice from what I saw - oddly it was from the scammer’s car.
I guess the collision damage was minor (here’s $100) but then they end up finding other unrelated things to repair. If the police are never involved with the initial collision then it would be hard for an insurance company to make the link.
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It’s a common type of scam everywhere.
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