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It wasn't a week after Irene Pollard lost her husband before Gregory Stefan, Jr. had found her number.
The North Brunswick mom was just beginning to wrap her head around the death of her husband, Myron Pollard, on Dec. 29, 2022, when Stefan began calling, asking her about creating a headstone for the gravesite.
"It was way too soon," Pollard said.
Not one to make others feel pushed aside, Pollard saved Stefan's number as a contact in her phone so she could at least answer when he called, and perhaps begin the process when she was ready to.
That day came April 29, and Stefan had already called Pollard so many times, she didn't consider meeting with anyone else for a headstone.
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Stefan met Pollard and her son at their home. He was pleasant and soft-spoken with a calm voice, Pollard said.
"He had all the ingredients of someone radiating sorrow for you," Pollard said.
Stefan brought his laptop and gave the Pollards a presentation on different styles, complete with photos he'd taken earlier that day at the cemetery, so the family could come up with a stone that might be similar to those around it.
"We decided, what else are we waiting for? Let's go with it," Pollard said.
The price Stefan gave was just over $10,000. He asked for half of it up front as a down payment.
Pollard wrote Stefan a check for $5,945. It was cashed almost immediately. The only thing he was waiting on from her was a photo of the beach to depict on the headstone.
Pollard regularly made mental notes to get that beach photo over to Stefan, but he got to her before she ever could.
In August, Pollard got a letter from Colonial Memorials saying they'd been experiencing financial hardship for two years, and was considering declaring bankruptcy.
In other words, the Pollards wouldn't be getting a headstone.
"My heart sunk," Pollard said. "The chances of seeing the money or the stone were slim to none. I kept reading the small paragraph saying to myself, something is missing. There isn't enough information here. I thought there should be more to it."
Pollard showed her son and they started calling and emailing Colonial Memorials: Nothing, no answer, no response.
Phone in hand, Pollard began Googling.
"When we started to see the information, that he had already been convicted and needed to pay restitution with his dad in Pennsylvania, we wanted to die," Pollard said. "The more we found, the further my heart sunk."
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Stefan and his dad, Gregory Stefan, Sr., and brother, Gerard Stefan for decades ran a similar scam in Pennsylvania. Authorities eventually stopped them, and came to a settlement that included restitution payments for their victims.
But Stefan moved his operation to New Jersey where he opened Colonial Memorials out of Bridgewater, and continued his customer-bilking.
"I've been fighting with myself because I feel like such a stupid person that I fell this way. I don't consider myself an idiot, but this guy, he's so smooth, he's so professional. We bought everything he was saying to us."
"There was nothing we felt he was about to take advantage of us."
Pollard says she can't help but feel guilty, but she's not alone. Stefan has hundreds of other victims and, earlier this month, police in Vineland issued a warrant for his arrest.
Pollard filed a police report on Aug. 9, and says she'll be thrilled if she sees her money again. But she isn't counting on it.
For now, she wants to warn as many people as possible about Stefan: "Most of all, I want this guy to be stopped."
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