Scammer Targeted Western Springs 'Moms' Page: Cops

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL — An Elmhurst man who is facing nearly two dozen counts of felony home repair fraud had two brushes with the law in Western Springs, according to police reports.

Edmund Kavanaugh, 52, used the same method to drum up business in Western Springs that he did in other suburbs — through a local Facebook "Moms" page, police said. Such pages are often the place where people get recommendations for home repair work.

Through a public records request, Patch obtained Western Springs police reports on Kavanaugh. The village's police department worked with other towns and the state in the overall investigation into Kavanaugh, who is now in the Will County Jail on a $350,000 bond.

Last May, a woman walked into the Western Springs police station and told an officer that she had paid "John" from Goliath Construction $649 for fireplace repairs the previous December, the report said. She said she learned about Goliath when she sought recommendations on the "Western Springs Moms" Facebook page for companies that handled fireplace repairs.

She said John, later identified as Kavanaugh, first came to her house with another man on Dec. 16, 2019. They told her the problem with her fireplace was an igniter switch. Kavanaugh also told her stories about how he rescued dogs from shelters. She said he promised the fireplace work would get done in four days, but it wasn't, police said.

On Dec. 21, 2019, she started texting Kavanaugh, but he ignored her messages, police said. So she used phones with numbers that Kavanaugh would not recognize. In the times she was successful in reaching Kavanaugh, he told her either that the parts hadn't come in or he had mailed a refund to her, police said. After several attempts to resolve the issue, she figured John was actually Kavanaugh, who had been the subject of a TV news report.

In a photo line-up, the woman later picked out Kavanaugh as the one who took the money, police said. Kavanaugh was charged with theft and home repair fraud in connection with the case, according to the reports.

In another case, a man went to the police department last March saying he had given Kavanaugh of Goliath $650 for fireplace repairs on Jan. 14, 2020, police said. It was cashed the next day. The man also found Kavanaugh through the Western Springs Mom page.

The man told police that the work was never done.

According to the report, a Western Springs officer called Kavanaugh, who acknowledged the man had hired him for the fireplace job. He said the man ordered custom limestone from China, which took a while to be shipped.

Kavanaugh said the man called several times to see whether the limestone had arrived, but Kavanaugh said the pandemic slowed the delivery, police said. The man wanted his money back, but Kavanaugh said he could only return $520 because of the 20 percent processing fee his company would be charged for the cancellation, according to the report.

Kavanaugh also told police that the man was making comments about Kavanaugh being all over the news and internet, to which Kavanaugh responded, "Big deal, so is Michael Jordan."

The man told a different story about the limestone. He said he was told it was coming from Indiana, police said. He said Kavanaugh promised him in late February 2020 that he would send a refund in the mail, but it never came, police said.

On April 2, 2020, the man told police he had received a $520 refund from Kavanaugh. That was about two weeks after he approached the police. He said that since he got the money, he did not wish to pursue the matter further because he did not have the time to go to court. The case was closed, and no charges were filed.

Last June, Patch found many examples of a Facebook user operating under the name "Jessica Munoz" answering inquiries on suburban "Moms" Facebook pages for home repair services. The user recommended a number of businesses with the same phone number, which is Kavanaugh's. The business names included Edward Paint Pros, Deck Pros, Tile Guys, Kitchen Guy and Arana Construction.

In interviews with Patch last summer, Kavanaugh said a Hinsdale couple's account of their dealings with him was full of lies, at one point calling the woman a slur typically used against females. He said he stopped doing agreed-upon work after the man emailed him that he was not allowed on their property. Kavanaugh promised to send that document to Patch, but did not.

Kavanaugh also said he couldn't do the work because of the state's pandemic shutdown order, but that order never applied to construction.