Con artists all around the world implement a variety of different scams. Sometimes, they prey on people’s desire to be greedy. Other times, they bank on the fact that someone’s going to feel guilty for them and try to help them out.
Then there’s a specific sub-set of cons that involve performing work or tasks no one asked for, like wiping down someone’s window while they’re stuck in traffic and then demanding to be paid.
While this seems like a very fast-paced, earn a few bucks here and there kind of con, some people like to pull a more long-form version of this scam. For example, like a man who decided to mow a woman’s lawn without asking her and then promptly demanded $150 for his services.
Tadah (@lifewithtadah) posted in a viral TikTok with over 209,000 views that she came home to a note on her door that reads, “I want my money: $150.”
In her “story time,” Tadah explains how she had just moved into a new neighborhood and isn’t all that well-acquainted with the residents there. She shares how she noticed one day after work that her yard was all done up and arranged nicely: the grass was cut and the flower pots were organized and clean. She says she was under the impression that it was her cousin who cleaned up as the two had previously discussed he would arrive the following week.
However, upon speaking to her cousin and initially thanking him for the work, he told her that he wasn’t the one who did it. Wanting to know who the mystery landscaper was, Tadah says she looked at her home security camera footage and saw a recording of a strange man she’d never seen before fixing her yard up.
The TikToker says that she didn’t think anything of it until a few days later when, while at her home, she heard someone calling out to her. Tadah says she was reluctant to answer the man at first as she isn’t familiar with the people in her new neighborhood.
Tadah eventually spoke with him and he asked her if she noticed that he worked on her yard. She says she thanked him for his work and expected to move on with her day.
The man then explained that he’s lived in the neighborhood for about 40 years and that he maintains all the yards for everyone in the area. He then allegedly tells the woman that he “usually charges $150,” which Tadah says didn’t register to her at this point in their conversation as she never asked him to do the work on her lawn in the first place.
She then asked him if he did her yard “for free because [she’s] new to the neighborhood.”
However, the man said that this wasn’t the case. “No I didn’t do your yard for free,” Tadah recalls the man telling her. “When do you think you can pay me?”
“Sir, I’m not disrespectful I promise but you came into my yard. You don’t know me. I don’t know you. We never met before and you was on my property and for you to just come on my property and cut my grass without my permission,” Tadah says she told him. “You know, I’m a little disturbed by that and I don’t feel like I should pay you because we never had a conversation before this we never met. I don’t feel like I should feel obligated to pay you, right?”
According to Tadah, the lawnscaper didn’t seem deterred by her monologue and instead told her that she didn’t have to pay him right then and there and asked how often she gets paid.
She says she told him that this wasn’t any of his business and he said that it was fine and she could pay him when she gets paid, not understanding that Tadah never agreed to have him mow her lawn. She reiterated that she doesn’t feel “obligated” to pay him.
After some arguing back and forth, the conversation ended with the man seemingly intent on getting the $150. After heading inside, Tadah says she weighed whether she should fork over the cash as he did perform the work after all. Then again, her cousin was going to come over the following week and do the work for free.
She says that around four or five days after their initial conversation, the note showed up at her house demanding the $150. Tadah holds up the note in the clip.
“Now you’re not getting nothing,” she declares. “I was thinking about it but now you’re not getting nothing you don’t put this on my door. You just don’t put this on my door you already came to my yard, trespassing cause you don’t know me and I don’t know you and now you putting stuff on my door and don’t say it wasn’t you cause you was on camera.”
Tadah says she feels like she’s “being harassed.”
“It’s not your money I don’t owe you anything,” she said towards the end of the video, asking other TikTokers if she should shell out the cash or stick to her guns.
Many viewers replied to her video stating that she shouldn’t, under any circumstances, pay the man. One TikTok user seemed to think that the yard work is just the tip of the iceberg.
“Nope…. if you pay him it will never end. best to stop it now,” they advised.
Another penned that she should consider getting the authorities involved, writing, “Girl, you owe him nothing, and if he continues to harass you, call the police!”
Another echoed this sentiment, writing, “Uno reverse! Press charges for trespassing you have video evidence!”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Tadah via TikTok comment for further information.
