I always think it’s easier in today’s digitized, easy-to-hide society for a confidence man — or con man — to make more money as a crook than as an honest man. Victims are easy to find. The chance of getting caught and punished is slim.

But now the lonely death of North Texas con man Brian Littlefield causes me to rethink my disturbing theory of evil and the often lack of accompanying justice. His final days show why the desperado life may not be worth living.

Littlefield was one of the most hated men in North Texas. He owed money to dozens, no hundreds, of companies and individuals. His goal in life seems to have been never pay for anything. His debts, shown in nine bankruptcy filings (nine!), reveal that with certainty.

 
Few know he died sometime in late August. A notice of his death never appeared.

“Some people get obituaries, and some people don’t,” explains Don Willis, who followed the ugly arc of Littlefield’s life.

Littlefield owned a business, Discount Appliance Service Co., for which he placed ads offering to fix refrigerators, washers and the like. He’d show up at someone’s house, take a deposit and sometimes attempt a repair. But when the fix went bad, the chance of getting him to return was null and void.

“My refrigerator wasn’t cooling,” said a woman from Fort Worth, where Littlefield set up shop. “He said it needed Freon. He added something, but it became warmer. I called several times. No response. I called to stop payment on the check, but he already cashed it.

“He goes directly to the check writer’s bank and cashes the check. We ended up getting rid of the refrigerator as he completely ruined it.”

Typically, he’d install a used part and tell the customer it was new. Or he wouldn’t finish the job. Then he’d disappear.

Stories about his act are as easy to find as dead leaves in the fall. One man paid a service fee and money for a part that didn’t work. “I left a message, and he never called back.” A few years later, the man’s father fell for the same thing. The father paid $50 upfront, then Littlefield actually returned, but he wanted another $50.

The father gave it to him. “He never saw him again and would not return calls,” the son remembered. “Dad said he felt like a chump.” Like father, like son.

Another man named Brian Littlefield often paid the price. “I used to get phone calls for this guy,” the other Littlefield remembered. “I had people who would call my answering machine and cuss me, saying ‘You took my washer/dryer.’ But it’s not me. I’m a financial adviser.”

Once, they even talked by phone. “Hey, I’ve got a lot of people calling for you,” the good Littlefield told the bad one.

The bad one didn’t care. “There are some that I will not call back because they are yelling and screaming and being hostile on an answering machine,” he told me in 2007 when I found him in East Texas. “I have a policy: If someone is hostile, I will not call them at all.”

“Why do they get hostile?” I asked.

“I’m not sure why.”

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

More Watchdog Nation News:

Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes

America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview

Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Aside from his appliance scams, Littlefield manipulated the court system, too. Forget that many thought the court system should be going after him. That didn’t happen. “No one with any power is stopping him from preying on the people,” one victim said. He was adept at legal maneuvers, serving as his own lawyer. He lost small claims court cases the way marathoners lose pounds. When he lost, he didn’t pay.

His nine bankruptcies, about one a year during the last decade, were designed to stave off housing evictions. (Lists of his creditors show he owed every business imaginable from bail bondsmen to electricity companies, banks, the government and video rental stores.)

Every time a landlord would prepare to evict him, he’d file bankruptcy to grab another 60 or 90 days before hitting the street to do it elsewhere. Not one bankruptcy was completed.

He was evicted more than two dozen times for nonpayment of rent, one lawyer said. “He drove a lot of people just about nuts. He knew how to throw up roadblocks.”

A property manager said, “I am pretty sure he holds our office record for going the longest period of time dodging an eviction action. He was skilled enough to run up the landlord’s legal bills and extend his occupancy without spending his own money.”

Littlefield admitted none of this. He didn’t run off with the money for no reason, he once explained. “If you change your mind, the deposit is forfeited,” he said with the confidence of a con.

“I would say I’m a good repairman, subject to making mistakes like anyone else. Everyone is human. Everyone makes mistakes. I’m not perfect. But I have been doing this for many years.”

He was known for giving tips about crimes to area police. Police didn’t charge him with theft because his bad business practices were considered a civil matter. “I’ve never been convicted of a felony,” he bragged.

He spent the last year of his life squatting illegally in an abandoned house in west Fort Worth. It was the perfect setup. No rent. No fee. No one to bother him.

He was sick with diabetes and other ailments. He didn’t work anymore. He had a horrible growth on his face that made him an ogre to look at. And when he died nine weeks ago, nobody noticed. Not for a week.

At age 52, the con man died alone in a fetid house not his own. Friendless and broke.

Read the latest Watchdog Nation reports from Dave Lieber at The Dallas Morning News Watchdog page.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Visit Watchdog Nation Headquarters

Like Watchdog Nation on Facebook

Watch Watchdog Nation on YouTube

Twitter @DaveLieber

Are you tired of fighting the bank, the credit card company, the electric company and the phone company? They can be worse than scammers the way they treat customers. A popular book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, shows you how to fight back — and win! The book is available at WatchdogNation.com as a hardcover, CD audio book, e-book and hey, what else do you need? The author is The Watchdog columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards for social change.