A scam involving overpriced pine straw has resurfaced in multiple Georgia cities, targeting older residents with deceptive lawn care offers that balloon into bills totaling thousands of dollars.
What We Know: The Jenkins County Sheriff’s Office issued a fresh warning about so-called “pine straw travelers” operating across Georgia. These scammers offer to lay pine straw for a low price—around $5 per bale—but then inflate the cost dramatically after the job is done. They often return with bale ties and claim hundreds of bales were used, charging unsuspecting residents exorbitant fees.
Victims have been reported in several locations in previous years. In Roswell, one elderly resident was charged $2,700. In Albany, the cost jumped to $5,000. Officials say this pattern has shown up in areas from metro Atlanta to Albany and is not isolated to any single region…