A North Miami Beach couple said a landscaper took off with their money without finishing the work. They couldn’t get an answer or their money back. Courtney Allen has this 7Investigates.
What started as a simple landscaping job…
DJ Gentile: “He’s good, he’s smooth.”
Left this North Miami Beach homeowner not only in the weeds…
DJ Gentile: “The yard looked like crap at that point.”
But out thousands of dollars.
DJ Gentile: “Never saw him again.”
When DJ Gentile and his wife decided to spruce up their yard, they found a man looking for work on a social media app.
DJ Gentile: “Met with him, obviously, got his drivers license, and then at that point, we waited for a quote from him.”
The Gentiles say the man told them he recently moved from near St. Petersburg to Miami for a fresh start.
DJ Gentile: “His story was they got devastated when a hurricane came through there, everything got flooded so it killed everything, he had no work, nobody was worried about their landscaping, everybody was worried about rebuilding their homes. Sounded legit.”
The Gentiles agreed to pay him $2,850 to trim all trees, haul away debris and more.
DJ Gentile: “He came that first day, did the cleanup, did a great job.”
DJ gave the man $850 to start and says at first, everything was going smoothly.
DJ Gentile: “Next day he shows up, nice and early. He gets to work.”
After two days, DJ says the man asked for the rest of the money, $2,000 to buy supplies and finish the work.
DJ Gentile: “He says, ‘I need that money, send it to my wife again,’ and my wife did.”
When he didn’t show up the next day, DJ’s wife sent him a text.
DJ Gentile: “He said ‘We’re gonna be a little late.'”
Text messages show the man wrote, “I’m sorry, having vehicle problems, but I’ll get it handled as fast as possible and get straight to your house.”
As time passed, DJ’s wife started to worry, texting the man, “I’m starting to freak out honestly,” but he assured her, “There’s no reason to, I’m very good at what I do.”
They never saw him again.
DJ Gentile: “Had no reason to believe that he was going to, you know, do that to us.”
They filed a complaint with the North Miami Beach Police Department, but were told this was a civil matter.
We called and texted the man to ask about the allegations that he took the Gentile’s money without finishing the work.
His voicemail was full and he didn’t respond to our text.
DJ Gentile: “It’s disheartening, maybe it’ll change our outlook on you know, hiring the little guy which is unfortunate because I was the little guy at one point.”
The Gentiles eventually bought the supplies they needed and finished the job themselves.
Their warning? Buyer beware.
DJ Gentile: “My hope is that somebody else sees this, that maybe he’s trying to scam.”
Especially when hiring someone you find online.
The man’s company is listed as “active” on Sunbiz. We reached out to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation to ask about whether they were aware of any of this, but we have not heard back.
Courtney Allen, 7News.
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