Alleged victim of tree-trimming scam: "my little 'Spidey Senses' went off"
This past summer, Brian Williams had a tree in his yard that needed to come down.
"I had issues with it. Trying to get it down for insurance purposes because it was dead," he said.
Being a tradesman himself, he is usually pretty savvy when it comes to hiring contractors to do work on his house, but when a man came to the door and offered a deep discount because his neighbors were getting their tree trimmed, Williams thought he had stumbled upon a pretty good deal.
"There just happened to be a tree trimming service right here. And so, they were doing all the work these people affiliated themselves with that company," said Williams.
He wanted the stump ground too and the man offering his services said he needed a $1,000 deposit to go rent a stump grinder. Williams initially thought it sounded legit but quickly had second thoughts.
"After I gave them the money and they gave me the receipt, which was a shady receipt, my little "Spidey Senses" went off," Williams said.
He wrote doe the license plate of the truck the man and a woman drove off in and never saw his money again.
"Usually, I don't fall for stuff like that," Williams said.
He is just one of the victims of Joseph Camillo Tyler and Amelia Marie Tyler. They each face 51 criminal counts for allegedly operating a criminal tree-trimming scam that targeted Coloradans in Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, El Paso, Jefferson and Otero counties from at least February 2020 until October 2022.
Police say they scammed 50 people for a total of approximately $40,000, some of whom were over the age of 80.
Their modus operandi was the same in every case. They would show up, get a deposit for work then leave before finishing.
The pair is now behind bars, but Williams says if you are hiring someone to do work, make sure to take precautions to protect yourself.
"Don't give them the cash until they are on site. Be vigilant, be on your toes. And if anything goes off in the back of your head, turn around and write that license plate number down," he said.
The Tylers are each facing two counts of violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act and various felony counts of theft, conspiracy to commit theft, aggravated motor vehicle theft and criminal exploitation of an at-risk person.
