CLEVELAND — He ran from our cameras but he couldn’t outrun the law. The "Runaway Cabinet Guy" has been caught and is now charged with at least one theft related to his cabinet business.
News 5 investigators tracked down Chris Cook, who clients say took their money and never followed through on expensive cabinet orders. The Lorain County Sheriff’s Department just arrested Cook this week.
“I figured eventually this would catch up with him,” said Annette Rawlings from Avon. She kept the faith that Cook from Complete Wholesale Direct cabinet company in Lakewood would be arrested.
“I’m very impressed with the prosecutors and everybody who’s been involved with the case,” she told us.
Rawlings said it’s been more than a year and a half since Cook and his brother Ed Burant sold her kitchen cabinets and didn’t deliver as promised. She gave Cook nearly $10,000.
“I saved for it. I wanted to pay for it upfront,” Rawlings said. “It didn’t come easy to me but I knew I wanted to do it. And it was just gone just like that.”
Our initial investigation showed Rawlings and three other women all had similar claims of missing money and cabinets from Cook. But when we found Cook and demanded answers from him, he just ran away from our cameras. He insisted he wasn’t Cook, but all the women confirmed it was indeed him.
Rawlings is holding out hope she’ll get her money back and is happy she stepped forward with News 5 to expose Cook.
“Thank you to everyone for all of your help,” said Rawlings. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Cook has pleaded not guilty to the felony theft charge. There is a warrant for Cook’s arrest involving one of the women’s cases in Cuyahoga County. So, they anticipate that since Cook’s been arrested, he’ll now face that charge soon, too.
Cook’s brother Burant is scheduled to be in court on January 6 related to Rawling’s case as well.
