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Police warn Northern Utah residents about scam after snow removal service a no-show

Posted at 10:02 PM, Feb 02, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-03 09:19:38-05

NORTHERN UTAH -- Police say a local company is scamming thousands of dollars out of people in Weber and Davis Counties.

Kaysville Police said they've received about a half-dozen reports of the scam where the company offers lawn care services, including snow removal, but when it snows they’re nowhere to be found and the victim is out hundreds of dollars.

“It's disappointing, it's frustrating, it makes you angry,” said Rebecca Head of Syracuse.

Gazing over her agreement with Michaelson Land Management, Rebecca shows the outlined services she never got and proof of the money that she paid.

“I'd like to see my money back, but I doubt that's ever going to happen," Head said. "I’m just going to chalk that up to a loss."

Rebecca and her husband are both disabled veterans and have two young kids. This winter they decided to hire a company to clear their driveway, before they knew it Michaelson Land Management was at their door

“He had a lanyard with a badge, he seemed very legit,” Head said. “We went ahead and looked them up, looked up their entity and everything, and everything seemed pretty legit.”

Plus it seemed like a good deal. The salesperson even gave them 20 percent off the $500 price tag for paying in cash.

“We signed a contract: it was for one year for snow removal, mowing the grass and all that kind of stuff,” Head said.

But when the first snow storm came, that's when Head saw the red flags.

“The deal was they were supposed to show up 24 hours after the snow fall,” Head said.

But they never did.

“I was very upset, I was trying to get a hold of them for days and days,” she said.

Head said it turns out the landscaping experts were simply expert scam artists who took her for hundreds of dollars.

“That's a good chunk of change we could have definitely put somewhere else,” She said.

Rebecca then saw she wasn't the only victim when Kaysville Police posted about the scam on their Facebook page. She hopes the scammers will be brought to justice soon.

“More than anything I don't want them to do this to anyone else, just to steal from somebody; it's just not right,” Head said.

Police say this is not only happening to families but businesses as well. Fox 13 News reached out to the company but did not get a response back. If you were a victim of this scam or know anything about the company, police want to hear from you.