For the first time since losing their jobs, Fox Collision workers are hearing from their former boss. A NewsChannel 8 investigation tracked down Todd Fox in Englewood, Colorado, just outside Denver. Fox refused to comment, but did send a letter, received over the weekend by former employees. Now, those employees are reacting angrily.

In the letter, Todd Fox says he expresses "my deepest regrets at having to close Fox Collision." But, for many of those who have received the letter, it's too little, too late.

No one heard from Fox when the doors suddenly closed without notice. He stayed silent when the paychecks started bouncing and the health insurance dried up. But now, three weeks later, Todd Fox is asking his former employees for "your patience and your understanding."

"It pretty much made everybody mad," says Dustin Jeffries, not exactly willing to take his old boss at his word when he writes, "please be assured that I have not given up trying to raise money to pay the final week's payroll."

"No, I don't buy it a bit," Jeffries says. "Because if he felt that bad then why didn't he just pay us to begin with?"

"Employees are what make your business work," says Andy Bartovick of Car Trends. "And you can't just off and leave them."

Bartovick says Fox Collision owes him money, too. And he says, if he ever gets it, he'll pass it on to former employees in an effort to drown out the negativity surrounding the story.

"I don't want people to think that the automotive industry is something that contains a bunch of crooks and thieves," Bartovick says.

In the meantime, former employees with time to kill can drive to Aspen and buy a high-falutin leather blanket. Toddy's, Todd Fox's latest business venture, officially opened for business Monday.

The attorney for a class-action lawsuit filed by former employees says he hopes to file that claim tomorrow. It seeks, in part, 60-days of salary for each employee, since no notice was given that the shops were closing.