WSVN — Joyce and Mark wanted to be safe from storms.
Mark Scola: "We're getting too old to do and we decided to go with impact windows and accordions on the bottom. It would make it easy."
Joan wanted her mom's town home secure.
Joan Battaglia: "We were planning on getting the accordion shutters on the windows here and over here "
Both John and Joan called Rolladen, a company they thought they could trust.
"I figured they had been around for a long time. They were the company to go with. I felt comfortable."
Both paid big deposits hoping to have their shutters in four to eight weeks. That never happened and they are not alone.
Detective Daniel Belyeu: "Sales were being made and yet the product was not being manufactured."
Broward Sheriff's Detective Daniel Delyue has been investigating the Rolladen shutter company for months.
Detective Daniel Belyeu: "It appears tha tone of the previous employees a sales type people had a falling out with the owners of Rolladen."
Detectives say that sales person told them the company was selling shutters with apparently no intention of delivering them.
A former Rolladen shutter maker tells 7 News for months the president of Rolladen, Robert Hoffman, told him to come to work just for show.
Rudy Khan: "He just want us to go in there in case customers come and they say 'OK the factories open. The front office is open and this is going on.' He's fooling the customers."
Rudy called us after his paychecks stopped coming.
Rudy Khan: "Everytime you ask him he says 'Today, tomorrow, next week.' He got money. He got money coming into the bank. This all the time. You know he's just playing games with us."
Since then, the offices of Rolladen have been locked up shuttered up and no one is returning phone calls, but detectives say customer complaints keep coming in and Robert Hoffman is facing some serious charges.
Detective Daniel Belyeu: "Grand theft and unlicensed contracting. We're evaluating whether it also warrants an additional charge of organized scheme to defraud."
Hoffman was supposed to be arrested Wednesday afternoon
Detective Daniel Belyeu: "He had telephone conversations with our detective and promised that he would report to our public safety building and he would come in to resolve the issue or at least make an appearance. He did not show."
If he fails to make the next appointment.
Detective Daniel Belyeu: "Our office has prepared a probable cause affidavit and that is a charging document for making an arrest."
When we first ran our story back in December, Hoffman promised to pay back all of the victims in our story, and he did. But this investigation is still far from over. I
If you have had money taken by Rolladen shutters, detectives want to hear from you. Contact them at 954-321-4255