Red outline is the land around the area of the proposed I-70 interchange at 29 Road that is owned by N70 Tech LLC, whose sole registered agent is local oil and gas consultant and land developer Quintin Shear. The City and County are planning a ballot measure to ask area taxpayers to subsidize construction of the interchange. The project is expected to cost $80 million and would be split evenly between the City and County.
The person in Mesa County who stands to benefit the most financially from the proposed 29 Road/I-70 interchange, if it gets built, is the owner of most of the land surrounding the spot where the interchange will be built.
That person is Quintin Shear, the sole registered representative of a company called N70 Tech LLC, which owns almost all of the land surrounding the location of the proposed interchange. N70 Tech LLC has no website and it’s operating address is listed as 330 Grand Ave., Unit B, Grand Junction, CO 81501. Shear, Inc. is listed as being in Unit A at the same address.
Did you buy a vehicle from a local dealership only to find out later you were defrauded in some way? Can’t afford an attorney to help?
Fortunately, there’s another, completely unpublicized way car buyers can get compensation for a fraudulent deal committed by a dealership.
Surety bonds
Colorado law requires every licensed motor vehicle dealer to carry a surety bond. The bond is meant to protect customers from fraudulent business practices.
A surety bond guarantees financial compensation to customers who incur monetary loss as a result of an auto dealer’s fraud, negligence or failure to comply with all of Colorado’s laws and ethical guidelines that govern the sale of vehicles. In order to get a dealer’s license from the state, all dealerships must purchase a surety bond to the amount of $50,000. Individual salespeople must also be bonded, to the amount of $15,000.
If you have evidence that a dealership committed fraud in your deal, for example if you found forged signatures on contracts or agreements, found extra charges were added were to your contract without your knowledge, the dealership submitted false information about your finances and the vehicle you were buying to lenders on your credit application (like inflating your gross salary or the length of time you’ve lived at your current residence, or claimed to lenders that your vehicle has fancier features like leather seats and a sunroof when it doesn’t), or if you were charged a higher interest rate than expected on your loan without your knowing, or if you were charged a higher price than the advertised price, or if the dealer told you had to buy additional products in order to buy the vehicle you wanted, or if the dealership submitted fake utility bills in your name to lenders, you can make a claim against the dealership’s surety bond to recoup the loss you incurred from the fraud.
Above is an excerpt from a 2023 lawsuit (pdf) brought by a Grand Junction couple against Red Rock Auto/Red Rock Hyundai describing how they discovered Red Rock Hyundai had fabricated XCel and AT&T bills in their names to include with the credit application for a loan on their vehicle. Neither one of the couple has an AT&T account.
How to file a claim against a dealership’s surety bond:
1) Identify the insurer that sold the dealer the bond**,
2) Contact the insurer and ask them to tell you their procedure for filing a claim,
3) Gather evidence of the fraud, for example the documents from your sale, your credit application, dates and times the fraud happened, the names of employees involved, copies of your signature if you think your signature was forged, a full description of what happened, the amount of money you are out because of the deal and the basis for the figure, and submit it all to the insurer with a letter saying “Dealership [fill in name]” defrauded you and you want to make a claim against the dealership’s surety bond.
The insurer will investigate your claim and pay you after they verify the facts of the case.
**How do you find out which insurer holds a dealership’s surety bond?
It’s public information that’s buried on the Auto Industry Division’s website. Here’s how to find it:
Scroll down to the blue “Quick Links” bar and click on it for the drop-down menu.
Click on the link for”Active Facility License Listings.”
In the bulleted sentence right below the page title, click on the blue link for “Active License Lookup.”
In the Active License Lookup web form, click the blue link in the third bulleted sentence that says “Click here to search for a facility instead of a person.”
In the facility search form, type the name of the dealership. [Hint: For the best result, use broad search criteria. For example, if you’re looking for Red Rock Nissan, just type “Red Rock.” If you’re looking for Grand Valley Auto, just type “Grand Valley.”]
Mug shot of Tiffany Momilani Miller, former Red Rock GMC financial manager, who was arrested for forgery, criminal impersonation and identity theft last year
In the search result box, click on the blue name of the dealership.
Scroll down to the dealership’s “License Bond Information.” You’ll see the name of the company that holds the bond for the dealership, and the bond number, which is like an insurance policy number.
Put the name of the bond issuing company into a Google search to get the company’s contact information. Call the company and ask them to tell you their process to file a claim against a dealership’s surety bond.
Above is the page on the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Auto Industry website with the surety bond information for Red Rock Hyundai, naming the bond company and the bond number.
Surety bonds protect customers from financial losses they incur from doing business with an unscrupulous auto dealer. It’s free to file a claim against a dealer’s surety bond, so if you were defrauded in the course of buying a car, file a claim to get compensation for the fraudulent deal. The bond company will pay you and then seek reimbursement from the dealer.
Also…Report the fraud to law enforcement
Dealers that use fraudulent practices will continue doing so until they get caught and sent to jail, because they make a lot of money off such crimes.
dealership inside city limits, fill out the G.J.P.D.’s financial fraud packet, file it with the G.J.P.D., meet with a cop to explain how you were defrauded, and include a copy of your fraud packet with the documents you send to the surety bond company.
You can also report the crime to the Colorado state Attorney General as an automotive complaint and write reviews on sites like Google Reviews, Yelp, Cars.com, the Better Business Bureau, etc.
The more records you make of the crime and the more such crimes get reported, the better off everyone will be, and the easier it will be to make a solid case to the surety bond provider so you can get your money back. And it’s free to do all of this, except for the time it takes to do it.
Note that all of the crimes in the following video have been committed locally by a notorious auto dealer that has five stores in Grand Junction, so it pays to know how to make a claim against a dealer’s surety bond to get compensation for a financial rip off:
Tractor Supply Company, a farm, ranch and feed company which previously had touted its efforts at diversity and inclusion, did an about-face June 27 after it issued a press release saying it will stop sponsoring events like gay pride festivals and voter registration drives, stop submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign, eliminate its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) roles, “retire” its DEI goals and will “withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts.”
The company says they “work hard every day” to “represent the values of the communities and customers we serve. We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart.”
Ad that ran in June 12, 2024 edition of the classified ad paper the High Country Shopper
Delta County residents are up in arms about a display ad that appeared on Page 20 of the June 12 edition of the High Country Shopper, a weekly newspaper published in Paonia that runs classified ads and promotes local businesses.
The ad, which is a departure from the norm for the Shopper, shows a photo of President Biden among an array photos of fascist dictators who have “had their opponents arrested,” including Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, Stalin and others. The ad was paid for by Cedaredge resident Wes Fisher.
Where could someone get such a misleading idea as this?
A roll of fiber optic conduit awaits installation underground in northwest Grand Junction. If you’ve seen construction scenes like this in your area, it means high speed fiber optic internet will be coming to your neighborhood in the not-too-distant future. This is a photo of Clearnetworx operations ongoing in northwest Grand Junction, near the Foresight Circle area.
Two companies are currently racing to install high speed fiber optic internet lines throughout the Grand Valley, particularly in areas that have been underserved with high speed internet.
Clearnetworx is based in Montrose. It is a local company privately owned by Doug Seacat, who was born and raised in Montrose. Clearnetworx has already installed high speed fiber lines in Palisade, and their system went live on December 21, 2023. Clearnetworx started installing fiber lines in Fruita in May of 2023, and have made significant progress in bringing fiber to the west central area of downtown Fruita. You can see a map of their progress for installation in the Grand Junction area here.
We’re really lucky to have this store in Grand Junction. The only other one in the country is in Punta Gorda, Florida. I love it because not only are its products unique, delicious and not available in grocery stores, but they could save your life.
Swelling clay soils can triple their volume when they get wet, causing them to exert tremendous force on a home’s foundation, and hence damage, if no measures are taken to mitigate the potential damage. Clay soils are very common across Mesa County. [Click photo to enlarge for better view.] (Photo: Colorado Geological Survey)
The geotechnical soils investigation (pdf) done on a building lot on Horseshoe Drive in Fruita where Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis and his construction company, Chronos Builders, built a spec home in 2015-2016 stated clearly that expansive clay soils were present on the site and that “Based upon our experience with the Mancos shale in the vicinity of the site, the shale is anticipated to be slightly to moderately expansive.”
Michael A. Berry, the professional engineer who authored the report, recommended three types of foundations that would better protect the structure from “heave related movements” than a typical shallow foundation, but also admitted such foundations are “usually cost prohibitive.”
The Commissioners used a roofing company in Keenesburg, Colorado to replace the roof on the Old County Courthouse on Rood Ave., instead of a company located in Mesa County
The Mesa County Commissioners recently had the roof replaced on the Old Courthouse at 544 Rood Ave.
They gave the job to Better Line Roofing, LLC in Keenesburg, Colorado, 279 miles from here, instead of a local roofing company.
A school board candidate forum that was planned for last evening, Monday, October 16, was cancelled abruptly the day of the event after the venue hosting the event, Good Judy’s Bar & Club downtown, received a violent threat on Facebook.
Note that “Bookcliffs Investment Group, LLC” is not be confused with “Bookcliffs Financial Planning and Investments,” which is an entirely different company unaffiliated with Reade and Adams’ business.
A second former Red Rock GMC financial manager has been charged with forgery, criminal impersonation and identity theft within the last month after posing as a customer on a phone call to the Canvas Credit Union to try to expedite a customer’s vehicle loan.
Matthew Morris acted as an accomplice to Tiffany Miller, the first Red Rock GMC financial manager charged with the same crimes in early August. Both Morris and Miller were fired from Red Rock, but in her arrest affidavit Miller pointed to Red Rock management as pressuring her to commit the crimes. In the same affidavit (pdf), Morris said that Red Rock GMC Sales Manager Tyson Chambers and General Manager Caleb Stillman both knew he and Miller were making the fake calls to
Tyson Chambers, General Manager of Red Rock GMC
the lender and that they “and essentially encouraged the behavior.” Morris added that “he was terminated [from his job] not for making the call, but for being caught.”
SAD SACK: The deflated Tennis Bubble by Sam’s Club
If you’ve entered Sam’s Club’s parking lot using the driveway off 25 1/2 Road lately, you’ve probably noticed a sad sight.
The longstanding “Tennis Bubble,” an inflatable structure otherwise known as the Junction Indoor Tennis Center at 535 25 1/2 Road. which houses four tennis courts inside an inflatable vinyl bubble that protects players from the weather, has deflated.
So what happened to The Bubble?
Did somebody stab it? Did the owners forget to pay their electric bill? Are the tennis courts being converted into pickleball courts?
