Newspaper Article

The case of the $10,000 desk
By Bill Alnor
Delaware County Daily Times July 20, 1986

WILMINGTON, Del. - In 1983 woodcrafter Wayne Schwartzkopf received an order to build an elaborate, $10,000 desk.

But the order didn't come from the governor's mansion near Dover where some of the woodcrafter's work eventually wound up. It came from the Rev. Frederick Drummond, the controversial pastor of the Church of Our Saviour in Concordville.

But now Schwartzkopf, who has a woodshop in Wilmington, says he's sorry he took the order. He's suing Drummond in Superior Court in Wilmington alleging that the pastor ordered the $10,000 desk, changed his mind about its specifications "at least five times," then refused to pay for it.

Drummond did not return a phone call concerning the lawsuit.

Schwartzkopf, who described the desk as "battleship-sized," said he's never worked on something that elaborate in his life. He said the desk was about 61/2 feet deep and about 10 feet long, it had several "wings" on it. He said Drummond ordered him to install several "secret compartments" in it.

Schwartzkopf said that when Drummond came to him with his order "he said he was the top gun in the Durawood firm" and that he could keep me in work for years and years to come.

Drummond has denied having anything to do with the Durawood firm.

But the woodcrafter said that not long after he began doing work for the pastor
he began to believe Drummond was "deliberately deceiving me, trying to rob me blind" when he began changing the specifications of the desk during so many visits to his shop.

"I had a sign in my shop that any changes would void the contract," said an angry Schwartzkopf.

But Drummond would not accept that, he said, adding that he had to throw the minister out of his shop over the dispute.

Drummond "is the only customer ever in 20 years that's pulled something like that," he said. Schwartzkopf said the dispute has not been settled yet. Court records show that a "replevin" action was filed that resulted in a court order permitting Drummond to keep the desk until the matter was settled.