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Catering company accused of Thanksgiving scam
Dozens of Houston families are upset at a catering business in Deer Park. They say they prepaid for Thanksgiving meals but the company never delivered their food. FOX 26's Matthew Seedorff went to get more information on the incident.
DEER PARK, Texas - Dozens of Houston area families are angry at a catering business after they say they never received their pre-paid meals on Thanksgiving.
"I don’t think we ever will see refunds," said Susan Bramblett. "He told us he doesn’t have the money to refund anybody."
On Facebook, Maddhouse Catering has its business listed as a food stand. Throughout the last several weeks, and in recent days, the company made posts offering Thanksgiving meals for sale.
Then, on Thanksgiving Day, several families told FOX 26 they never received any of the food they purchased ahead of time using Venmo or CashApp. In some instances, customers claim they spent between $200 to $300 each.
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"I want him to know it was wrong what he did," said Albert Fernandez.
Fernandez says his daughter pre-purchased their family’s Thanksgiving meal from Maddhouse, but they never received any food.
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"I had to go to Kroger’s and get chickens, whatever little they had," said Fernandez. "I’m not going to have my daughter do this again. It’s just sad it had to end up like this."
In a video shared with FOX 26 by a customer, a person affiliated with the company can be heard telling people on Thanksgiving their phones "shut down" because they were "overloaded with messages." As a result, they claimed they couldn’t alert their customers of issues.
In an additional Facebook Post, Maddhouse Catering wrote that they "ran out of food", their "oven caught fire" and they didn’t have money for refunds.
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FOX 26 tried speaking with the business owners at their home for an explanation, but they declined to comment. So far, we have been unable to find any documentation or licensing that would prove Maddhouse is a legitimate catering business. However, Deer Park police say they’re treating them as such for their investigation.
Authorities say a woman from the business owner’s home was arrested Friday afternoon on an unrelated warrant.
Anyone who believes they are a victim of this situation is urged to contact Deer Park Police Officer Spencer at (281) 478-2000.