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Fake company scamming would be workers, customers out of thousands of dollars

Investigations open in two counties for incidents
Posted at 7:51 PM, Aug 31, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-31 19:51:23-04

The job offer included a decent hourly wage and a face-to-face meeting with the manager. Now weeks later a Plant City man finds himself homeless after working for a paycheck that never came.

The hotel room paid for by a relative is all that stands between Travis Kilpatrick and the street. Kilpatrick was evicted and lost his car after his employer failed to pay him $1,400 for two weeks work in July.

Kilpatrick showed us emails from the human resource manager regarding the missing check. The work involved walking 9 to 14 miles a day posting door fliers advertising Elite Lawn Care's packages.

We went to the SunTrust building, the address on Elite Lawn Care's emails. No such business exists here. No one answered or returned our calls and the website has gone dark.

Eric Olsen heads up Hillsborough County's year old wage recovery program. The unit is now investigating Kilpatrick’s incident. The process could take months and even lead to a court hearing.

Today we discovered Hernando County Sheriff's investigators are working three related cases involving homeowners who paid Elite Lawn Care for work that was never done.