PAW PAW, Mich. -- Diana Holub and her husband Frank run a wedding venue in Niles. So when they looked to expand, they hired a man they now say has no conscience and doesn't care about people.
In February, Diana hired Aaron Weaver, who owns Weaver Concrete of Paw Paw to build walls and lay the cement. She said she found his ad in the local paper.
"We had paid him about $12,000 total," Diana said.
But she said all he did was knock down some trees and leave a big mess.
"And there was about four weeks when no one showed up," Diana recalled. She said his workers had only built half of one block wall. The job was apparently abandoned.
The Holubs started Tying the Knot Weddings and Events right in their own backyard in Niles last year. They seek to make memorable moments for couples on one of the biggest days of their lives. Amenities include a horse drawn carriage ride and a meticulously detailed bridal suite.
Business "improves all the time," they said.
Given that, they bought the church next door in November. Diana said it was a "very dilapidated church, but we wanted to make it nice again."
"We wanted to make it into a wedding chapel," she added.
When Diana tries to get Weaver to follow through, "All I ever get from him is 'I'll be there, I'll be there.'"
"Then recently, he wanted to pay me a hundred dollars a week supposedly to pay back the money, and I told him, 'I didn't pay you a hundred dollars. I paid you thousands of dollars, and we need the money back,'" she explained.
To finish the concrete portion, she paid another $6,000 to the workers Weaver allegedly didn't pay, and while they finished the work he was supposed to do. Now the couple said the money they would have spent on the rest of the chapel is still tied up with Weaver.
This has caused distress for the Holubs. "I ended in the emergency room because of a panic attack," Diana recalled.
So they reached out to the FOX 17 Problem Solvers to get some answers.
After leaving a message, FOX 17 stopped by the home on file for Weaver Concrete. It's apparently undergoing renovation itself. No one was there.
Weaver returned our call and said he did nothing wrong and told us to contact his attorney. His attorney hasn't returned our call yet.
An online database shows Weaver was punished for home invasion in the 2000s and has had numerous small claims cases filed against him ever since. The judgements and disputes total nearly $38,000 in four different counties.
There are also bad reviews for his business are on multiple websites in addition to an "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau.
"It would be a godsend if you can get some money out of this guy," Diana said. "At least, if nothing else, other people won't be taken in by him. I mean, it's just not right. Actually, if he doesn't pay the money back he should have his buns in jail."
FOX 17 is in contact with authorities on this, including the Berrien and Van Buren County Sheriff Departments.
