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Man arrested, accused of scamming Cobb County customers in tree service

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Nearly 3 years ago, Channel 2 Action News viewers called us about a tree service they say was taking their money and not doing the work.

Now, police have arrested the same man for allegedly doing the same thing again.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray went to Cobb County, where he spoke to a new victim.

Gray saw the front yard, where a tree is still marked with an “X.” There is even a climbing rope that has been tossed in the tree, put there in July, but the tree was never actually removed.

“They just left it there and I couldn’t get them back to clean up,” Acworth resident Peter Lin said.

The one tree that was cut down in Lin's backyard was one that was not supposed to be.

Gray saw x's on the five trees he hired Norman Wayne Fairchild and Tree King Tree Care to remove. They are still standing, 7 months later.

“I took him at his word, unfortunately. I learned my lesson,” Lin said.

Lin paid Fairchild half the money, $2,250 up front.

The Cobb County sheriff arrested Fairchild. He is facing a felony charge there.

This is not the first time he has been alleged to have done this.

Nearly 3 years ago, Fairchild was going by his middle name, Wayne, and calling his business Georgia Boys Tree Service, when Channel 2’s Jim Strickland interviewed multiple homeowners who, just like Lin, paid Fairchild for work they say he did not do.

“I did an idiot thing. I paid him cash before he did the work,” Ane Harris said in April 2017.

Fairchild would not come to the door when Gray tried to speak with him at his Acworth home.

Lin said he just does not want this to happen again.

“I don’t like law breakers. I don’t like people getting harmed because someone decided to take advantage of other people’s kindness,” Lin said.