Two scammers picked the wrong person to try to hoodwink in a pine straw scam this past weekend in Putnam County, Georgia. Pine straw scams are frequent in Georgia. People pull up with pine straw and offer it at a low price and then attempt to scam the victim into paying a higher price – often using threats.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills was at home when the two men pulled up and asked him if he wanted to buy pine straw. The sheriff told them “no” and that he was aware of people using pine straw sales as a scam. Sills says that he then told the two men that he would hold them there until deputies arrived when he found out that they didn’t have the required license to do door-to-door sales.
The two scammers attempted to flee in their pickup truck, and Sheriff Sills shot one of the tires out of the truck. The local district attorney is backing up the sheriff’s action and says no charges are pending against the sheriff.
It turns out, the two scammers, identified as Jeremy Thomas and Antoine Brown, both were wanted by the law already with active warrants and probation violation charges.
Neither men had a driver’s license either.
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