[LazyPup]

After a hurricane in Pensacola, Florida a friend of mine discovered a huge live oak tree in his back yard was now slightly uprooted and leaning precariously over the back of his house. He called his insurance company and they said he should have the tree cut out immediately

He called every tree service in town, but due to the weather they were all too busy to get there for at least a week or two.

He was sitting there wondering what he should do when he heard a chainsaw running across the street. Looking out he saw a pickup truck and two men cutting a tree in the neighbors yard so he walked over and asked if they could give him an estimate to remove his tree. The lead man came over and looked at it and said they could get it just as soon as they finished the tree they were working on.

About an hour later the pickup pulls in the driveway the men came to tell him they were ready to start. My friend had to get ready for work so he signed a contract and wrote them a check, then he went in to take his shower. He could hear the saws running for about ten minutes then came a terrible bang and the tree came crashing in on the house. He ran out to see what was going on and found a chain saw laying in the driveway, still running, and the pickup was speeding down the street never to be seen again. It seems that instead of starting at the top of the tree and taking it down a bit at a time those fools had cut the butt and dropped the tree on the house.

To add insult to injury my friend called the insurance company again and told them what had happened only to be informed that the insurance would not cover the damage. The insurance company agreed that the tree needed to be removed, but dropping it on the house in that manner was gross negligence on the part of the workman, therefore they were responsible for the damage, not the storm.

My friend then located the contract he had signed and found there was no address or phone number for the tree service. When he later tried to locate them through the city licensing bureau he found out they had no license and the contract was fictitious. To this day he has not been able to recover any of his losses.