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One day while working the day shift I received a call about a landscaper screaming at a pregnant woman and that he was threatening her. The pregnant woman was hiding inside the house. The person who called this in was the pregnant woman’s husband.
I rushed over to the address and when I got there I saw a man covered in dirt sitting on the porch of the house. The man had a big smile on his face and looked like he just finished a bunch of yard work. The male was covered in straw. As I looked around the yard, I noticed that a large part of the yard had a thick layer of pine straw. I approached the male and introduced myself. He said his name was John. I asked John what happened. John looked at me perplexed and he said he had no idea what I was talking about. John said that he just finished laying pine straw and was waiting to get paid by the owner of the house, Mary.
I told John to wait and I knocked on the front door of the house. When Mary opened the door the first thing I thought was that she looked like she was 9 months pregnant. In one hand was a phone (which she was crying into) and in her other hand was a baby. Behind her were two more toddlers. Mary then said into the phone “They are here. I’ll call you back.” Through tears, Mary said, “Hello officer.” I replied and asked her what happened. Mary said that John was driving a truck full of pine straw and knocked on her door. John then told Mary that he would lay pine straw wherever Mary wants in her yard and it would cost her $1.50 per bale of pine straw. Mary happily agreed. Mary then pointed to about half an acre of land. John asked her how many bales and Mary said as many bales as it takes. James happily agreed. Once John finished laying down the pine straw he returned to Mary and they both marveled at his hard work. Then John mentioned how much it would cost Mary … and this is where the problems began. Because Mary asked for such a large part of her yard to be covered in pine straw and because she did not specify how many bales of pine straw she wanted John to use and John laid it on thick. John used about $500 worth of pine straw. John told Mary the price and Mary told John she would be right back. Mary then ran into her house and called her husband, Steve. I asked Mary if James ever threatened her and Mary finally stopped crying and looked at me confused. She said no. Mary went on to say that John was nothing but nice. Realizing that this was a big misunderstanding, I returned to John and told him what happened. John was shocked and immediately said that he would lower the price to try and help Mary. John and Mary spoke briefly before he laid pine straw for her. Mary told John that she was a stay-at-home mother and that the pine straw was going to be a surprise for her husband, Steve. John did not want to cause any issues between Steve and Mary so he said that he would lower the price to try to help her. As John was speaking a car pulled into the driveway and Steve hopped out of the vehicle. Steve puffed out his chest and made a beeline straight for John. I jumped in front of him and just said stop. Steve looked at me confused. I asked John what he was doing and he said he was defending his wife. I looked at Steve with a straight face and told him that I spoke with Mary and she said nothing happened. Steve looked mortified and stuttered “bu- but she was crying?” It then dawned on Steve that he completely overreacted. John could hear our conversation and run over. With a big smile on his face, he told Steve not to worry about it and was willing to cut the price in half to make sure that he and Mary did not have any issues. Once Steve paid John I left and couldn’t stop thinking about how kind John was to the family. Shortly after this happened, I told one of the people I work with this story. He began to laugh and said it’s a scam. I looked at him confused and he explained that it was a lot more common a few years ago but landscapers would go around and sell pine straw to houses. After the buyers agreed and turned around the landscapers would use a lot more than necessary to drive up the price. Afterward, the landscapers then tell the buyers the “new” price. The landscapers then give the buyers a “discounted rate” so the buyers think they won the exchange. After hearing this I was shocked and I thought to myself “is there any way John could do this?” Then I thought back to when I first met John. As I walked over to him I walked through the pine straw and thought “oh wow this is a lot of pine straw.” Then I realized… John tricked all of us.
Originally posted on my blog (https://ourstoriesfrombehindthebadge.wordpress.com/) ![untitled.gif]
