Ferguson woman claims she was scammed by tree removal company

FERGUSON, Mo. (KSDK) - The tornado that swept through parts of the bi-state last weekend has turned into an expensive nightmare for an 83-year-old Ferguson woman.

We got the tip about this story from an official with the Monarch Fire Department. The woman whoclaims she was scammed is his mother-in-law.

Alene Tow got an estimate from one tree removal company Friday to clear her roof after the tornado that ripped through north St. Louis County last weekend. Before that company could start work, someone else came and removed a small pile of trees and debris.

"So I just assumed they were the ones that the other man was sending for me," Tow says.

The men were from Will's Tree Service, a company with two out of town phone numbers.

Tow says the shocker came after they finished: "$750 when the other man was only going to charge me $150...He came and sat on the end of the chair there and watched me make out a check. And I was so nervous that instead of putting $750, I put $705."

She says they came back and she wrote another check.

"I didn't notice until later that when I handed him the new one, he laid it down on the table. Evidently he picked the one that I had made out wrong right up with the new one and took them both."

She called her daughter Marjorie Herin.

"She was crying and immediately I called the bank and cancelled one of the checks," Herin says. "But I didn't realize until later that they had gotten two checks. By the time we got to the bank Saturday morning, one had already been cashed."

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Ferguson woman claims she was scammed by tree removal company