Local Pool Contractor Sentenced — Editorial

The man in the picture is Fab Cantu. It seems that some of the work done by Mr. Cantu might have been somewhat short of perfect and there were complaints all the way from Beaumont to Iberia Parish. You know what upsets me about stories like this? This was a local business and Lake Charles goes local whenever it can. To take advantage of the public trust and to con your friends and neighbors is low.

How on earth can a person live among people and continue to look them in the eye and just lie to them? Surely, somewhere along the line, Mr. Cantu made friends in the area. He may have even made friends with people who trusted him to do his job correctly and live up to his word.

My gosh, man. If you haven't got your word, you don't have anything. We're used to politicians and fly-by-night companies ripping people off. We see it all the time. Particularly when some disaster or another befalls the community. You know the people I mean.The phony roofing contractor from Wisconsin or the bogus dry wall hanger from Fon-du Lac, both move into a community and then beat a hasty retreat. What is upsetting is when a local business person betrays the trust.

The prosecutor in the case, Hope Buford said that some of those victims spent their life savings with Cantu. Those victims have pretty much said that they preferred that Cantu go to prison for his actions since they saw no way he could ever make restitution. So now, the victims pretty much end up with nothing.

I find this story very sad. Still, the story has a happy ending my friends. Cantu was fined $3,000 and sentenced to five years each on six cases here in the parish. Now, the sentences run concurrently, so he'll only serve five years. Still, that may not be the end of the trouble for Cantu since that sentence over covers the charges here in Calcasieu. Charges from other areas where Cantu did work may still be heard from.