Mike Bohanan Mike Selmer Thieves Pose as Auto Repair Company Aumsville Oregon

On October 3, 2013, I received an e-mail from Mike Bohanan, who is the owner of D&S Enterprises, but also calls his business “Mike’s Auto Repair” and "AUTO-MOD-IVE Auto Repair".  His last known address is 895 N. 7th St., Aumsville, Oregon, 97325, though this is believed to be the residence of his parents.  He supposedly has a shop at 605 3rd Street in Independence, Oregon, though I have not verified this.  Phone numbers I have for him are 503-917-9133 and 888-367-7214. 

The e-mail Mike sent me detailed the cost of a service plan to cover my recreational vehicle motorhome and my brother’s pickup truck.  I received this e-mail unsolicited, and in fact it was in response to my query to him as to whether he was even going to show up to continue work on my RV, which I had already employed him to repair in the field at a ranch where I was staying. 

We had earlier discussed Mr. Bohanan performing periodic maintenance such as oil changes on my brother’s truck and my RV, as well as repairing a damaged skylight and a broken awning on my brother’s travel trailer.  I did not, however, agree to make any payment nor had we settled on a final price.  This e-mail, in fact, is all I have ever received from Mr. Bohanan in the way of a quote regarding future repairs, and going by the figures he quoted in it, only totals $1,020, not the $1,285.00 he eventually charged me.  He had my credit card number by virtue of a payment of over $3,000 I made to him earlier for repairs completed on my RV toward the end of September, 2013, and had obviously retained it and used it to charge me again.  I did not sign a credit card receipt (as I had done for him in September), nor did I agree to any charges made by him, and in any event have received neither services nor goods in return for this charge over the past eight months.  I have contacted him both by e-mail and phone numerous times, leaving messages requesting at least a receipt for what he charged, attempting to work this out with him.

On November 10, 2013, I downloaded a PDF of my November 2013 Visa bill from the U.S. Bank web site to pay it, and discovered a charge from D&S Enterprises dated October 9, 2013, for $1,285.00 .  This was a surprise to me because, again, I had not authorized Mike Bohanan to charge me for anything other than the invoice I paid in person in late September.  I immediately called his cell phone number, which appears on the credit card bill and his business card and invoices, and got voicemail.  I am unaware of any other phone numbers for his company.  I left a message asking for him to call me back and explain.  Hearing nothing from him after 15 days, I sent him an e-mail  requesting a receipt, invoice, explanation or something so I knew what I was paying for and so that I could use them for my business tax records.  At this point, I was still anticipating Mr. Bohanan would eventually be performing maintenance for me and my brother and be repairing my brother’s travel trailer.

Later that day, I received a reply from someone identifying himself in the e-mail as his "brother, Eric", stating that Mike Bohanan had been injured in an accident and that he wanted to talk with me personally.  He added that Mr. Bohanan was going to replace the skylight and awning on my brother’s trailer the first day he returned to work after recovering from his injuries.  I sent an understanding reply and fully expected Mr. Bohanan would eventually contact me and we’d get the entire process under way that I’d paid for.  I was beginning, however, to become concerned that I was not being told the truth and that these delays were to keep me pacified so I wouldn't do anything.

After waiting two more months and hearing nothing, I sent another e-mail to Mr. Bohanan on February 8, 2014, requesting at least a receipt.  At every step, I have indicated my willingness to work with Mr. Bohanan, however I have yet to hear anything, still don’t know what, precisely, I was charged for, and have received no services nor goods for the $1,250 charge I received nearly nine months ago. 

In a voice-mail, I even warned Mr. Bohanan he needed to make haste to get over to my brother’s trailer (stored just a few miles from where Mr. Bohanan lives) to repair it because my brother had passed away and his wife was coming from over 150 miles away to collect the trailer and take it home.  I gave him my brother’s wife’s phone number in case he wanted to make arrangements with her, but neither she nor I have subsequently heard from him.

In a final effort, I sent Mr. Bohanan an e-mail on May 5, 2014, indicating I had contacted Visa to dispute the charge from October 9.  I also indicated that if Visa could not help me, I would contact local police to file a criminal complaint for theft and fraud.  Once again, Mike never responded.

It is a shame that it has come to this because the work he did on my mobile home was top quality.  With that previous positive experience, I was willing to wait until Mr. Bohanan became available, but he simply stopped communicating with me, deadlines passed, and I felt I had no choice but to file a criminal complaint against him.  Visa is unable to do anything for me because their policy of issuing refunds on disputes expires 60 days after the date of purchase.

On July 9, 2014, I presented my statement and printed exhibits as evidence to the Police Chief of Aumsville, Oregon.  I guess it should have been no surprise to learn that Mike was well-known to them, and they informed me his real name is Mike Selmer.  The chief said Mike's modus operandi was to come to various cities and other government entities passing himself off as a company that could repair and maintain their police, fire, and ambulance vehicles, but that he eventually became a suspect in the theft of a number of fire trucks and ambulances.  It is interesting to note that while working on my vehicle, he brought to the site a fire rescue truck he had converted into his service vehicle, with the decals from its previous owner still visible through the thin red paint he had applied over it.  He claims he got it at a surplus sale, but with the information I learned about his criminal history, I have to wonder.

The Police Chief also informed me that Mike Bohanan is a real person, also known to them in connection with similar incidents and apparently tied to Mike Selmer.  If anyone has been a victim of these folks, I encourage you to file a complaint with the appropriate police jurisdiction, or contact the Aumsville, Oregon, Police Department at 503-749-2188.  These people come to your home or wherever your vehicle happens to be, so if you've given them access codes, keys, or any other proprietary information that allows them to gain access to property, I highly recommend you change those things and get any locks re-keyed.  From where I sit, this has all the appearance of a criminal enterprise.  I will post back to this complaint follow-ups, with results of any police investigation, court trial (which I have made myself available to testify in), conviction, and/or restitution order I might receive.