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DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. -- What started as an investigation into botched truck repairs has turned into allegations involving thousands of dollars worth of loans that were never repaid.
Several alleged victims have reached out to Contact Denver7 claiming the owner of Douglas County Diesel, Chad King, borrowed large sums of money and never paid them back. King is facing two counts of forgery, theft ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 and theft ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. He is set to appear in court on August 21.
Contact Denver7 began investigating complaints about King late last year when a viewer reached out to complain about a repair job. Daniel Brooks thought his truck was in King's Castle Rock shop but it was discovered at a nearby tow yard. He said the truck was gone for 10 months but no repairs had been made, his $18,000 insurance check was gone.
At the time, Castle Rock Police confirmed they were investigating two cases involving Douglas County Diesel.
Complaints continued to come into the Contact Denver7 tip line about King's business. Another viewer, Michael Phillips, said when he picked up his truck four months later, the repairs were not finished.
"It's still in the shape it was when it was brought to Douglas County Diesel it appears -- doesn't run, won't start," said Brooks.
The allegations involving King go beyond shoddy repair jobs. Several people have reached out to Contact Denver7 saying they loaned the diesel repair shop owner tens of thousands of dollars but they are still waiting to get their money back.
"I just want, if there’s other people like myself, to come forward because I think there’s a lot of good; honestly, people like myself that were just trying to help a guy out," said Jason DeYoung, the owner of a contracting company and artificial turf business.
DeYoung said he loaned King $80,000 after he told him he needed the funds to settle outstanding medical bills.
"He had just randomly called me one day after we had been bringing a lot of our trucks recently and had a lot of work done and said, 'Hey Jason, I don’t know if you’re a Christian,'" said DeYoung. "He said, 'I was praying about this last night.'"
According to DeYoung, they reached an agreement to repay the money within 90 days. That deadline came and went when DeYoung started to get suspicious.
"And then I saw your story and yeah, started talking to other people around town, and come to find out like ten people that I know had also loaned him money and this whole thing just unfolded," said DeYoung.
He ended up taking King to court and filing a civil lawsuit. They reached a settlement agreement but he said King has only made two payments.
"I told him I would drop all of it and give him all that money and not ask for a dime in return if he could just prove that it went to Children’s Hospital, and he couldn’t produce anything proving that even one dollar went to pay his kid's medical bills," said DeYoung.
DeYoung isn't the only one waiting to be repaid. Another local businessman, Russell Lombard, said he loaned King about $25,000.
"So he told me that he needed that money because one of his big customers who he did fleet work for, he did maintenance on all their vehicles and bounced their check to him, and he had to make payroll that day," said Lombard.
Lombard and DeYoung said what sold them was his story. They said King showed them paperwork saying he was about to get a large insurance settlement and he would use that money to pay them back. Both men believe King had no intention of ever paying them back.
"I just don’t want anybody to keep lending him money or trusting him," said Lombard.
Contact Denver7 has made multiple attempts to reach King for comment.
