Police are looking for some driveway contractors who responded to a dispute over payment with violent, lurid threats.

On Aug. 19, property owners in Langley and Abbotsford called police to report the unusual threats.

The Langley incident took place when a homeowner in the 6100 block of 248th Street hired a crew to pave his driveway.

While the work was underway, the homeowner ran into a man who recognized the paving crew. The newcomer claimed the crew had done very poor work for him in Richmond.

Confronted, the crew left with the job only partly finished.

“The workmanship was of questionable quality,” Marks said.

Later that day, the homeowner received two threatening phone calls demanding complete payment for the job, said Langley RCMP Cpl. Holly Marks.

The callers began by saying they would come back and tear up their work, but then threatened to tell people that the homeowner was a pedophile, Marks said. Their second call involved a threat to rape the man’s wife.

The victim called police.

The same day, a similar incident was unfolding in Abbotsford. In this case, the work was also questionable, and when a dispute about payment arose, the contractors allegedly said they had links to the Irish Republican Army, and that they could bomb the victim.

In the Langley incident, it seems there will be no criminal charges.

“The complainant doesn’t want charges,” Marks said. Local Mounties have spoken to someone apparently representing the contractor by phone, and the matter will be worked out between the homeowner and the company through lawyers, Marks said.

However, in the Abbotsford case, investigators are still pursuing their suspects for threatening.

The threats were made from a pay-as-you-go cellphone number, making it hard to track down the caller.

Publicity of the first two incidents has brought a number of new, similar cases to light, said Const. Ian MacDonald of the Abbotsford Police.

He’s received three calls from people around the Lower Mainland about similar incidents ranging from two years to five days ago.

In the most recent incident, the victim was a business owner who wanted his parking lot paved. He returned and found a slapdash job being done, and to find that the agreed upon price had doubled.

While the victim said he felt threatened, the incident apparently did not escalate to the same level of the Aug. 19 incidents.

In the Langley case, the victim said the suspects had strong British accents, but in all the other cases, Irish accents were reported.

MacDonald said the investigator assigned to Abbotsford’s case is very eager to speak to the suspects.

“Our investigator is Irish,” MacDonald said.

The investigator said driveway scams such as these are extremely common in his home country.

Marks warned other people considering work on their driveway to be cautious. With a project that can easily costs thousands of dollars, do your homework first, she said.

Contacting the Better Business Bureau to see if there have been complaints, asking to see references, and getting estimates from a couple of firms, are all good ideas, Marks said.

Anyone with information regarding the company is asked to call the Abbotsford Police at 604-859-5225, or Langley RCMP at 604-532-3200.