Can you call the police over fraud in Tennessee?

Question

I paid a guy to modify a keyboard over two months ago. I had been in frequent contact contact with him and suddenly he stopped contacting me late last February. He said it would take two weeks when I first came to him.

I met up with him in person at personal shop, not a store nor his home, to give him the gear. I asked him to hand over a bass as collateral so I’d have something to hold onto in case he didn’t make good and finish the mod, but my shrewdness wasn’t so shrewd; I didn’t check if the value was close enough. It’s a third of the gear I gave him.

Calling the cops over a six week delay of someone’s side project is too much, so don’t think I’m itching to call. But I’d like to have the knowledge for if this stretches for much longer; if you have been defrauded/scammed in this way, can you call the police?

Answer 1

Yes. The First Amendment protects your right to call the government to complain about your grievances, regardless of whether they can or will resolve them.

As a practical matter, I would be surprised if the police were willing to get involved unless you could persuade them that the entire thing was a scheme to steal your keyboard from the beginning.