When beloved Dr. Jose David opened his own family medicine practice off Western Avenue in Guilderland in 2019, he said Quent Weigel renovated two floors.

A while later when they were ready to do more work, they brought him and his Preston Development back to do the third floor.

“He wanted the deposit of funds mainly because with COVID, the supplies are not coming regularly and will take months before we can get the supplies, and he preferred that we give a deposit, and we issued him a few checks,” David said.

They said he started work, then it dropped off.

“And later on after four or six months, he just decided to stop communicating with us. He would not respond to an email or a text. And we were getting worried,” David said.

“August 2022 was the last I’ve ever heard from him,” said Jennifer Martin, Practice Administrator. “We knew that the third floor wasn’t going to be done. And if it was, it wasn’t going to be done by him. We didn’t know where he went.”

According to the office, they are out $60,000. That’s a tough hit for a small business. They had to pay another contractor to do the work.

“You’re helpless, basically, helpless how to get your money back. And they disappear,” David said.

Quent Weigel, or John Quent Weigel, 53, of Wynantskill was arrested last week. He is facing charges of grand larceny and scheme to defraud.

“We tried ourselves, we tried the lawyer, then we went criminal and called the police and made a police report and we’ve still yet to have any kind of answer whether or not Dr. David is going to get his money back,” said Martin. “I mean, that’s not right.”

“The public should know,” said David. “The public should be protected against people like him.”

The doctor said it especially hurt when he didn’t have the money he wanted to help one daughter buy a house, and for another daughter’s wedding.

“How could you do that to somebody?” asked Martin. “And somebody that trusted you and that you’ve already done good work for. Why would you do that?”