Lower Mac Man Took Money for Construction Job He Never Did, Police Say

The post was reported and written by Jack Tobias.

A Lower Macungie Township man, who according to a published report gouged the eye of a stranger who had driven his girlfriend home from a bar in 2010, is in trouble again, this time for allegedly taking money for a home improvement project but never showing up.

Court records say Charles M. Meredith, 29, of 2001 Rolling Meadow Drive, took a $1,000 deposit for kitchen work at a Freemansburg home in March but never showed up to do work and never returned the money.

The records say police arranged to meet him several times so he could pay back the money but he never showed up. As recently as June 19, police arranged to meet Meredith at an Allentown convenience store but again he didn’t show up, the records say.

That apparently was the last straw. An arrest warrant for Meredith was approved June 27, and he was arraigned at noon Tuesday on charges of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and home improvement fraud.

In the earlier case, Meredith pleaded guilty in connection with the 2010 assault in Allentown and was not given jail time, according to a 2011 story in The Morning Call.

Lehigh County Judge Maria Dantos sentenced Meredith to two years probation, ordered him to perform 250 hours of community work service, and to pay more than $5,000 in restitution for the medical problems he caused.

Meredith told the judge that business was slow, but he had been working construction jobs five days a week, the report said.

In the Fremansburg case, a resident of the 900 block of Ramblewood Lane told police she gave Meredith a $1,000 check on March 18 that represented a deposit for kitchen work. A contract signed by both parties said work would begin on March 21 and be completed on March 24.

The resident told borough Patrolman Robert Wieder she called Meredith to postpone the start date until March 22 because of a doctor’s appointment. Meredith agreed, she said.

The resident said she waited all day March 22 but Meredith didn’t show up, according to court records. The same thing happened March 23. She told Wieder she called Meredith the night of March 23 to cancel his services and get her deposit back, the records say.

Meredith told her he was in the Easton area and would stop by to give the money back. He never showed up, Wieder writes in a criminal complaint.

The resident contacted police the night of April 2. At some point, Wieder himself contacted Meredith, who said he would pay back the resident. He never did.

Wieder had several phone conversations with Meredith so that the two could meet and Meredith could return the money. Meredith never showed up.

He also failed to showed up on June 19, when he agreed to meet Wieder at a Wawa in Allentown.

Meredith was arraigned Tuesday by District Judge Joseph Barner of Lower Nazareth Township and released on $2,000 unsecured bail.

Online court records from Lehigh County show that Meredith has faced charges before in addition to the case involving the gouged eye.

He pleaded guilty in February 2012 to theft by deception in a case out of Emmaus, the records say.