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Man Accused Of Scamming Homeowners For Fences That Were Never Built
August 1, 2022
An Escambia County man is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly scamming three people out of money for fences that were never built.
Cody William Brown, 33, was charged with three counts of an organized scheme to defraud, three counts of grand theft, and fraudulent use of a credit card. He was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $10,000 bond.
Brown allegedly made a charge of $3,700 to a victim’s credit card on each of three consecutive days for a total of $11,100 to do work at a home on Steeplechase Boulevard in Beulah. No work was done, and no workers arrived, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Unable to reach either of two phone numbers provided for Gulf Coast Fence and Supply, the resident called the deputies to report what he believed “to be an intentional local scam”.
The victim later received a text message from someone claiming to work for “Kodiak Fence Company”, the company named on the victim’s credit card statement. The text claimed that the work would be done, but no further response was received, an arrest report states.
According to the ECSO, Brown is the owner of Kodiak Fence Company, the Kodiak business phone number was used on a flyer for Gulf Coast Fence and Supply.
Brown told investigators that the third charge on the victim’s card was a mistake, and that he would refund the amounts. He stated that he had been sick with COVID, and that is why he could not start construction on the fence. according to an arrest report. He also explained that he was in the process of changing company names.
Two weeks later, the victim again called the Sheriff’s Office to state he had not received a refund, and Brown told investigators that he would overnight a check to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office to give to the victim. A tracking number was provided, but it continues to show only that a label was created but never shipped.
Brown also allegedly accepted payments of $2,100 and $1,375 from two residents on Jamesville Road for a fence between their properties. According to the Sheriff’s Office, the work never started and promised refunds never arrived.
Comments
38 Responses to “Man Accused Of Scamming Homeowners For Fences That Were Never Built”
Wow! This person did the same thing to me. I wish I would have looked him up sooner. Is there anyone out there that has a case building against this man and his company? I would love to add mine to it.
Reading all the comments, all the same excuses and problems that I encountered.
Ben Geller I hope your grandson was not that nice young skinny blonde man that installed one of the sides of my fence. I found him a great lead for a much better job. Hope he wasn’t seriously injured.
Got ripped off by this turd too. Same skit- “mailed the check to you for the refund. You should have it soon.” Then radio silence…. I should have contacted the police. Idk why that didn’t dawn on me.
My husband and I had just moved to Gulf Breeze, FL due to military orders and he gave us a good quote back in February for the fence and gutters and told us we needed to pay 50% upfront for everything. When I tell you they did a sloppy and poor job, I’m not exaggerating. The fence and posts of the fence are literally coming up and wobbly, not deep enough to be stable, the fence door was ripped off the gate and on the floor, and our gutters were never installed. After coming up with multiple excuses of “traveling out of town for his sick child” and “having a serious accident that left him incapacitated from going off the side of the bridge” he claimed he was going to send workers out to fix my fence and install gutters for everyone in my neighborhood who had a contract with him. Never heard from him again. I called, emailed, etc. Nothing. Neighbors did the same. His company website and 2 work numbers were all mysteriously taken down but luckily enough I had his cell phone number and tried to get a hold of him for weeks on end. Nothing again. Now I’ll be seeking legal action because we’re out thousands of dollars for work that wasn’t done and work that wasn’t done properly.
Yes, I got second rate service as well. He has a ton of excuses. Many excuses like death in family, sick child, etc. Just another snake in the grass! I’d not long gotten my fencing before Hurricane Sally and it blew some panels down…he never responded.
Got me for $21025. I should have checked him out.My bad.
Who pays someone to do work before it’s even started, not me. Never pay up front, you don’t know who’s going to take your money and run.
Cody owes my grandson several thousand dollars for work he did last year.
He is the same one whose truck went off the road almost going in the creek on Kingsfield in Cantonment several weeks ago.
The thief comes only to take and destroy.
This guy is just made a miserable life for his self.
Cody Brown is a crook through and through. I hired him to put a fence on my property. Read my BBB complaint. Tried to build it on my neighbor’s property. Just showed up one day, no notice, no knock. Receipts given only for a fraction of the total. No invoice for total work done. I was the one who told his workers where to put the fence as Cody does not speak Spanish. Did not use the wood he told me he was going to use. Rude office people.
@PM&R Services LLC
This guy was NOT!!!! behind on work due to rain he was ripping people off. As long as your being honest with your customers and keeping them informed they will understand it’s when you don’t do that and keep dodging them is the problem. This individual hurts the individual installing fences by himself trying to feed and take care of his family.
Stories like this are disheartening to say the least. We currently have multiple customers deposits and just cannot get to the jobs because of the rain. Just reading the context of this story it seems this guy is getting punished just for being behind on work like 90% of the other companies around here. It really hurts those of us who work mostly by ourselves because workers aren’t available.
This is terrible. Most of all for legitimate small business owners. If you don’t think small business owners who work paycheck to paycheck like everyone else don’t at least have to ask for the first day’s pay or some kind of deposit before starting a 10k or even 2k job, then you’ve never sweated for a stranger/customer and jumped through hoops to be scammed yourself at least once starting out. So for everyone saying, NEVER pay a dime upfront. Then hire a larger company (they will charge more) who may (or may not) have the financing and higher insurance to pursue people who don’t pay their invoices. Otherwise, be realistic and just do your research. Like it says above, if it looks like a duck…
Trust your instincts. There are still hard working veteran owned honest businesses out here that people like this give a harder time.
This is the reason why home owners are required to pay cement companies for cement being delivered to their home before delivery .Contractors were not paying for it and the companies were coming after home owner. The home owner had to pay for it then go after the contractor. People today have no scruples and they feel as though it’s ok to rip folks off. The sad part is the number of people around him will defend him to the end. He’s probably out doing the same thing today .
I hate to here a story like this one . Because it hurts honest Fencemen . I have been Fencing in this area for 20 some years and installed God only knows how many miles of Fence by myself. I have customers pay for Materials up front , and I just show up when scheduled and work at it every day until finished. Customers are always happy to pay the Labor when I finish . Pressure sales are a No , No for me . Word of mouth is always best wether good or bad .
I have Never paid a contractor up front for materials. If materials need to be purchased, I go buy them at a Lowes or similar store in person, pay and have the contractor pick it up but I never give the contractor any money until after the work is done. A reputable contractor won’t ask for up front payment.
He had charges back to 2012 for fraud and swindling….
2012 – fraud
2014 – violation of probation
2015- fraud & larceny
And y’all surprised……. He has a History of stealing from others —
To anyone that has had additional issues other than what these charges are, you may want to contact the Sheriff’s Dept investigators to find out who is handling these cases and see if you can add to them. If check or credit card was used and there are text messages, etc. showing he promised work you may also be able to add to these felony charges. These people who are continually doing this needs to be stopped. Thanks to NorthEscambia for giving everyone a head’s up.
I’ve been on both sides of the fence. Expecting something to be done and never have any work preformed. I’ve also built a few dozen fences for people over the years. I’ve always come out of pocket for materials up front and keep in touch with the homeowners to keep them informed as I’m only a 2 man crew things can get out of schedule quickly with weather and supply chain issues. My opinion, I feel as though he should have to reimburse the customer and pay the over and above cost for a reputable fence company to do the install since he was so “cheap”
My buddy got his fence priced, 1/2 acre privacy fence, it was estimated at 24K. That was last year before lumber skyrocketed. We ended up doing it ourselves with a rented auger. It’s was a beast but he saved like 15-17K.
I also hired him after hurricane Sally. Came one day tore my fence down and didn’t show up again for 2 weeks. Many excuses ie; death in family, sick child but my favorite…his post hole diggers broke.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck!!
It’s always the “good deal” “cheap quote guy”
that rips you off!!
The first sign would have been let me use
your credit card to buy the material because I
have no credit anywhere but I’m still a successful
business!!
VN that must be some fence.
go with a link fence. they last way longer.
I wonder if he got permits for building the fencing? Escambia County requires that, as well as Contractor licensing. Bet he doesn’t have that either. That could be an additional charge he has to face.
He scammed us also. He purchased the materials but work wasn’t done. It was a year going back and forth with him. He offered a refund but never paid us back. The job was $36,000 for our fence. We paid 20k to Kodak fencing.
Apparently crime does pay. After paying his bond, he still netted five figures.
I built my fence. It was hard work. I recommend renting a gas powered auger. It helps as that is where the hard work is. I learned a lot through trial and error. My biggest mistake was not spacing the boards and when the big winds come the fence acted as a block and bent over. That is hard to correct with posts in the gound anchored by cement.
We hired him to do our fence when we first moved into our house. He gave us a great deal and his people did a great job on our fence. (2018). In 2020 we hired him to put rock around our house and install gutters. It took MONTHS to get it finished. There was excuse after excuse, sick from his Yeti cup, rock was ordered and on the way but never arrived…on and on. Thankfully my husband is VERY persistent, (and we knew where he lived). We finally got the work done. After hurricane Sally, parts of our fence blew down. He came to our house and offered us a deal to fix it. We agreed, (must have been out of our minds after the storm). He sent two teenagers over, who did a horrible job fixing the fence. My husband stayed on his butt about fixing it correctly. He never did return and my husband ended up fixing it himself. Our neighbor had the same trouble with this company. We would NEVER hire him again.
First, the man deserves his day in court. Secondly, LOU, great suggestion. He builds the fences for free to those that he scammed. Of course, under a watchful eye so he does it right.
Pensacola roofing has been around since the 50s. They branched out with a fence company. Highly recommend them.
He did my fence and some landscaping. He took months to finally get the landscaping done AFTER I threatened a chargeback with my credit card! He also did basic metal black metal around the beds after being told to use stone (and quoting for stone). SCAMMER!
The way the world is now, why do these people “trust” another person. Stupid to give the creep your credit card. Now he is out after paying 10% of $10,000 bond to relocate to scam other victims.
it’s better to take the home owner to get the building materials have the home owner pay for the materials and pay to have them delivered ? once the post and runners are up and the pickets are started about 1/4 then the guy can ask for one half of his labor charge *** so he can pay his workers to keep going then when finished and owner is happy with the fence then collect the other half. and yes sometimes the fence gates might sag and they will have to come back out to make adjustments . and might take a week or so being they tied up on another job. and this heat will make you sick. ( chill out )
@Lou
Pay him back and doing all by himself!!
Part of his punishment should be to make him build fence for restitution.
Never pay for something like this in advance. Have the work done then pay them if satisfied with the work. Everyone will be happy.
I am so glad I didnt hire this guy when he stopped and talked to me. I still havent hired a a fence installer, but I still have my money. I may just have to do the work myself.