‘There were no eggs’:Parents lose hundreds of dollars in Easter egg delivery scam

By Senait Gebregiorgis

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    CENTRAL FLORIDA (WESH) — Some parents and children in Central Florida woke up on Easter morning to find no eggs in their yard after they paid for them to be delivered.

Parents in Clermont and Minneola said someone used social media to scam families out of hundreds of dollars on a religious holiday.

“How hurtful of person you must be to do this to a bunch of kids,” parent Mitzi Cohen said who fell victim to the scam.

The parents saw “Egg my Yard” flyers circulating in Facebook groups. It advertised prices to order Easter eggs filled with candy or toys and then a delivery from someone who will scatter the eggs outside a home “with a note from the Easter bunny.”

A person behind the Facebook account with the name “Sarah Honey” published the advertisement.

“[The person] was like ‘don’t forget to pay me for the Easter eggs if you still want them,'” Cohen said.

The flyers said prices for the Easter egg delivery range between $20-$75. Parents were told they would have to pay in advance through Cash App, Zelle or Venmo.

“I ran downstairs at five [Easter] morning and looked out our front yard and there were no eggs,” parent Kristen Kladiva said. “So I was devastated and I had no plan b.”

Some of the other victims said they didn’t have a backup plan either and had to explain to their kids why there were no eggs on Easter morning.

“I texted, and I called and I texted again and I called again and then my last message [to the person] was ‘hey you were supposed to be there,'” grandparent Gigi Capria said who fell victim to the scam.

The parents said the person behind the flyers did not reply back to their messages.

“And then we found out [the person] had six Facebook pages,” Capria said. “We noticed [their] Venmo account was gone all of a sudden.”

Capria posted about the scam on social media and quickly learned she wasn’t alone.

“I find the post and I see all the comments from everybody else that [the person scammed],” Cohen said.

Dozens of people commented under Capria’s post on Facebook saying they had been scammed by the same person behind the Facebook account.

Community members stepped up to keep the Easter spirit alive.

“‘We received messages from people saying ‘hey I want to help. Hey our church has extra eggs,'” Eileen Scates said whose sister fell victim to the scam. “A lot of [these victims] are working moms, single moms and they were working Easter so this [delivery] was going to be the highlight of their day.”

Last minute Easter gifts from generous community members were delivered to some of the families who were impacted to help turn frowns into smiles.

“That’s what Easter is about,” Scates said. “Love, hope and joy. Even though this thing happened that was terrible it was kind of nice to see the community come together.”

WESH 2 has not heard back yet from law enforcement, but some of the parents said they reached out to local police departments to report the scam. WESH 2 also contacted the person behind the Facebook account that published the flyers but has not heard back.

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