ATLANTA — It’s an unfortunate sign of spring in metro Atlanta, pine straw scammers making their way through neighborhoods.
“So, he knocked on the door and said he was doing the neighbor’s house across the street with pine straw, and he had extra bails that he could put down on my house if I wanted,” said a Morningside homeowner who asked us to hide his identity because of what happened next.
The agreed-upon price was $150 to put out pine straw, but when he checked in on progress before they even got to the backyard, the price had skyrocketed.
“I said, ‘So, you’re telling me that this is $450 worth of pine straw?’ And he said, yes. And that’s when things went south. It would have been $1,000 or more for the fifth of an acre that I live on,” the homeowner said.
Abbe Zorn Sands saw the man’s story on Nextdoor, and it sounded familiar because nearly the same script was followed when she was scammed at her Dekalb County home.
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It also started with a knock on the door and an agreed-upon price per bale.
“They actually came in and they put all this pine straw down and they did a really good job. And then they tell me the amount and that’s when I almost fell over, Sands said.
She was told she owed $2,200 for 400 bales of pine straw.
“I should have gone in the house and locked the doors and called the police. But I was scared,” she said.
Both homeowners told Gray they felt intimated to pay by payment apps. The workers refused to leave and got aggressive.
“I was like, this just need to be over. My kids are crying, my kids are scared. Take the money and go. I realize I’ve been scammed. Shame on me, shame on you. This just needs to end,” the Morningside homeowner said.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office offers suggestions for how to prevent being taken advantage of by the pine straw scam:
- Check the Secretary of State’s website for business license
- Check the Better Business Bureau’s website for complaints
- Before someone starts the work, ask to get the terms in writing
- To be safe, say no to door-to-door solicitations
Both homeowners we talked to immediately called and reported this to the police.
Sands was able to get her money back from her bank when she provided the police report and evidence of the fraud.
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