Bill Tapper wants to warn others about a scam his neighbor fell for, leaving her hundreds of dollars in the hole and without a fixed roof.

Tapper lives in the Shorewood Estates trailer park off Waverly Drive in Albany. He says he saw a family sell a faulty roof coating service to his neighbor, who is in her mid-70s.

"I'm very upset," he said.

It happened late last week, he said. His neighbor's son had been working on the woman's roof. There was a tarp on it.

"I know that those guys saw the edge of that tarp," he said. "That's what probably stopped them."

They were in a gray 1990s Chevrolet four-door pickup with a white canopy. Tapper arrived about 10 minutes after they did.

In the pickup were a heavy-set man in his 60s and a woman of similar age with two "adorable" little dogs, a black and white puppy - he thinks a Shih Tzu - and a Pomeranian.

They told the woman they could fix her roof.

"They quoted her an exorbitant amount, in my opinion," Tapper said.

The dogs were a great attention getter, he said. "Or a distraction."

Also with them were a young man around 20, who looked about "130 pounds soaking wet" and another man in his mid-20s. The woman talked to the neighbors about how she had gastric bypass surgery in California and had lost a lot of weight.

The older man said his father lived in space No. 40 at the park. It was only later Tapper realized he knows the man in space 40 and he is too young to be the man's father.

The older man said his last name was Greg and every time he said it he pointed at the bucket of treatment they were rolling on her roof, which said, "Greg's product."

They were only there an hour and 10 minutes and said they would be back the next day. They took the elderly woman's $695 and gave her a generic receipt. It had a phone number on it. When the owner called it, it turned out to be non-existent.

The roofers didn't come back, and the roof is already leaking, Tapper said.

"I know this type of thing goes on, but I would sure like to catch them," Tapper said.