OKLA. CITY - Stella Caywood is crying foul.
“I thought he was a good person,” she said.
She’s furious with Christopher Pflueger.
She says he recruited her, her cousin George Watson, and dozens more to work long hours at his haunted trail in Depew, Oklahoma, only to stiff them.
We all have families,” Stella said. “A lot of these people took time out of their lives, their kid’s lives, to come here and work for him, when their children were at home.”
Pflueger had Stella and the others fill out waivers and applications with their personal information.
Pflueger sent workers a text the morning he was supposed to pony up their cash telling them he is filing bankruptcy.
We know Pflueger runs a transitional house for women and children in Tulsa.
He promoted his spook trail as a way to help fund his program.
“What he told me was the home was to help women get off the drugs, get out of abusive relationships,” George said.
We did some digging into Pflueger's past and uncovered arrests and charges in Arkansas and Oklahoma for assault and battery, a bogus check and concealing stolen property.
Those charges were later dismissed.
We got word he's been camping out at his transitional home.
We saw people inside, but no one came to the door.
Around the corner we found remnants of the spook trail.
When Pflueger never showed we got him on the phone.
“I am upset with the situation too,” he said. “It doesn't make it any better or any worse. It was not intentional at all.”
He told us his attorney is handling his bankruptcy filing, which we confirmed.
Stella and the others alerted the Oklahoma Department of Labor about their missing wages.
“We worked hard for it and we need the money to help our families,” she said.
It sounds like Pflueger got all of his paperwork done, but the haunted trail was just a flop and never produced enough money to pay his employees.
We’ve also learned his transitional house may also be closing soon.
The In Your Corner bottom line for those looking for seasonal work.
- Check out the the organization or person online to see if this if they're on the up and up.
- Search online court records at oscn.net and odcr.net
- Call up your local district attorney’s office and sheriff’s office to see if there has been any problems in the past.
- The OK Dept. of Labor can you tell you about past wage claims and complaints.