HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — What started as a project to make a bathroom more accessible for an elderly mom turned into a family paying for a job without seeing any work and discovering the plumber they hired had no business taking the job.
Watch full report from Susan El Khoury
After losing her husband of 59 years, Sharon Shomaker moved into an apartment attached to her son’s Hillsborough County house. The only thing that was missing was a tub she could use.
“I have osteoporosis, 80-year-old Shomaker explained. “I have a lot of pain, and they said it would help.”
She and her son Bob Shomaker found a plumber on Craigslist. They showed ABC Action News a copy of the ad for a “professional plumbing service” touting more than 25 years of experience. The advertised professional was Isaac Wyant, who works with the business name A+ Plumbing. The Shomakers didn’t know Wyant wasn’t a licensed plumber in Florida.
“We took him at his word because he was so knowledgeable and seemed to know what he was talking about,” Bob Shomaker said.
Sharon Shomaker said she paid Wyant a $1,550 deposit, expecting to see him again.
“He just never showed up.”
“My dear, dear husband who I loved very much we were married 59 years, if he is up there and he saw what I did he would literally roll over in his grave,” Sharon Shomaker added.
Weeks later, the Shomakers still haven’t seen Wyant and are now waiting for a refund.
“He’s made four appointments to meet with my mom and give her her money back and then he never shows up,” Bob Shomaker said. “It’s bad enough that he took her money but the fact that he’s toying with her.”
That’s when the family reached out to Susan Solves It. Consumer Investigative Reporter Susan El Khoury called Wyant, and he responded with a text message that stated, “I had a major family emergency and wasn’t able to complete the job for them. The deposit is completely going back to them this week.”
The week passed and the Schomakers never saw a dime.
“I wonder how many other people he’s done this to,” Sharon Shomaker added.
Two hours away in Punta Gorda, Aaron Menice has firsthand experience with Wyant, who he found on Craigslist back in 2022. Menice said he hired Wyant to work on a property flip, paid a $1,100 deposit, but Wyant never did the job.
“He definitely portrayed himself as an experienced plumber, I believed him,” Menice said.
Menice ended up taking Wyant to small claims court, where a judge ordered Wyant to pay back the money. Menice said he’s still waiting to be paid.
Wyant was in court earlier this year when he was evicted from a Cape Coral rental house and ordered to pay more than $15,000.
Before he moved to Florida, Wyant lived in Iowa, where court records show a list of cases ranging from small claims linked to his A+ Plumbing company to a case where Wyant pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor theft charge.
Back in Hillsborough County, the Schomakers filed a report with the Sheriff’s Office, which led deputies to do an undercover sting where they called Wyant to a house and got an estimate.
Investigators recommended a felony charge of not having worker compensation and a misdemeanor for being unlicensed. Prosecutors are only pursuing a misdemeanor charge for unlicensed work. Wyant is due in court in mid-August.
Wyant currently lives in Hillsborough County in a canal-front home. When ABC Action News stopped by, no one answered the door, and Wyant hasn’t responded to the I-Team again.
Menice can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Charlotte County investigators had taken his case when he tried reporting it years ago.
“The authorities don’t seem to want to deal with it or call it a crime, they want to call it a civil matter. I think that’s a big problem in this situation and why it keeps happening,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Schomakers keep seeing ads for Wyant’s plumbing work.
“I’ve made Craigslist aware of it, and I go on every morning to see if he’s reposted and when he does I flag the ad,” Bob Shomaker said.
The Schomakers still hope investigators and the state’s attorney's office will look into what happened to them. The misdemeanor Wyant is facing only has to do with being an unlicensed plumber from when he gave deputies an estimate.
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