Jarvis lost $77,000 trying to buy a bulldozer.
BAT CAVE, N.C. — Since Hurricane Helene hit, a western North Carolina man continues to provide free repair work in Bat Cave, an area heavily hit by the storm.
Jacob Jarvis has been working to rebuild his community.
“Every single day we’re building bridges at no charge,” said Jarvis.
Now, he’s been hit by another storm.
His business — Precision Grading — has been taking homes that were destroyed by Helene and turning them back into what they looked like before the storm.
Jarvis needed a new bulldozer for business.
“I buy a lot of stuff off of Facebook marketplace,” he said.
Eventually, he found a seller named Blake Milum out of Charlotte who had just what he needed, or so he thought.
“He told me he had it on consignment with a company in Texas. It all seemed like we were dealing with that company and then they we agreed on a purchase price.”
The price — $77,000. The seller sent Jarvis this equipment safety inspection document and even signed off with a mechanic’s signature.
Jarvis said he researched the company, looked at a variety of pictures and videos and even received oil samples from the seller. Everything seemed ready to go.
“We went ahead and made the purchase agreement and arranged shipping. They gave us a tracker on the dozer so we could follow it,” Jarvis said.
The dozer was never delivered. The seller and company went ghost.
WFMY News 2’s Taylor Leverett researched the seller Blake Milum.
He is a real person — just not the one who signed off on this bill of sale.
The BBB confirmed the following information.
“The website for the business was just created on January 13, 2025. (The business’s location) It was sold back in March 24 and at the time, it didn’t necessarily look like a heavy equipment business could be run out of this property,” Lechelle Yates with the Better Business Bureau said.
“Blake Milum is an assistant project manager for Page & Associates. He has no affiliation in equipment or equipment sales,” Ham said.
Page & Associates President Brent Ham said Jarvis is not the only caller to their business claiming to have been scammed by Milum.
A message of a scam warning shows on the website. Click or tap HERE.
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