i knew if i went to the cops the first place he would go is to my grandma's house. >> so who is joe ridellontrolled the scammers? chris hansen with "dateline nbc". how you doing? ridell is a three time convicted felon. we met him at the clarke county detention center where he was being held on another case. gary stevenson told us you were the man behind the scene, where you would send these guys out, target the elderly people, ripping them off. >> never. >> did you ever send gary or a guy named dave to punch holes in people's water lines? >> never. >> to destroy the sprinkler systems so you could get paid for repairing them? >> never. >> ridell says now that stevenson has been caught he's just making up a story to cover his tracks. >> you know you are under arrest, right? >> so why would gary stevenson say all this? >> because the guy is a crazy nut. >> he's a crazy nut? >> yeah. he got himself in a bunch of trouble. so he lies about everybody else. that's what. >> but ridell says he never beat or threatened stevenson, in fact, he says he helped him. >> took care of him. lived there. >> we