The owner of the Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, Missouri, told a nearby news outlet she was swindled out of $18,000 from a New Hampshire asphalt contractor hired to do a repair job at the property.
Shelly Cravens told KYTV of Springfield, Missouri, that she hired Henry Stanley of New Hampshire to smooth out a section of pavement at the motel.
“I saw the New Hampshire plates. I thought maybe they just moved here and started a business. I just assume everybody is not lying, and they are going to do what they say,” she said.
Cravens says Stanley walked into the motel and said he had leftover asphalt he needed to get rid of. She paid him $18,000. He was supposed to come back and finish the job. That was two weeks ago. Now, she can’t reach him, but Stanley picked up when On Your Side called. Ashley Reynolds asked when he’d come back. He didn’t answer and hung up. Reynolds called back and tried to ask about his past.
The station found that another Henry Stanley in New Hampshire had been arrested in Florida two years ago. He was accused of running a traveling “asphalt paving” scam that produced shoddy work. Stanley served two months in jail.
Cravens has filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the Missouri attorney general.
Cravens is the daughter of Ramona Lehman, the longtime co-owner of the Munger Moss who died about a year ago. Lehman’s husband and co-owner Bob Lehman died in 2019. They owned the Route 66 motel for almost 50 years.
For now, Cravens is contesting her sister for ownership of the property.
The motel’s name came from a sandwich shop of the same name in nearby Devil’s Elbow, Missouri, built in 1936 by Nellie Munger and her husband, Emmitt Moss.
The Munger and Moss relocated to Lebanon after U.S. 66 bypassed Devil’s Elbow, and they founded the motel in 1946.
(Image of the Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, Missouri, by Stu Rapley via Flickr)