KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. – People who normally buy their Christmas trees in Key Biscayne will have to look somewhere else this year.
The trees were never delivered, and it may have all been because of a scam.
The Grinch has stolen Christmas in Key Biscayne, with the Grinch in this case being a man in New Jersey who may have scammed the Key Biscayne Community Church out of $30,000.
“My kids and I have been involved since day one,” said Eric Labrador, who runs the Christmas tree operation. “To me, I believe that it hurts me more than anybody.”
His crews were ready to unload 900 trees back on Nov. 21 but the shipment never arrived.
“We just ordered some poinsettias, try to bring up the Christmas spirit, it has been deflated here,” Labrador said.
The church now believes they may have been scammed out of the money and their biggest fund raiser of the year.
They switched from their regular provider in North Carolina after the owner died, finding a man who sells Christmas trees from new jersey in an online forum.
“The trees never arrived, they made several attempt to contact that vendor at that point with no response,” said Key Biscayne Police Chief Frank Sousa.
A local hearing about the ordeal provided 50 trees to the church.
While the island’s famous Christmas tree lot is almost empty, church goers and the community are saying their Christmas spirit won’t be broken.
“God bless him, I don’t know why he did it, and obviously our church feels that we got our Christmas spirit stolen, but we want to continue to believe that God has a reason for this in the end,” said Labrador.
The police have been in contact with the man in New Jersey and they have his full name. He has promised that he will return this money, so there is a possibility that the church could get its money back and the man was just overwhelmed.
The pastor told Local 10 News’ Cody Weddle he’s not holding his breath.