A phone order for ficus trees looked like a needed sale for a Phoenix-area nursery. Days later, the payment was reversed and the trees were gone.
Valley nursery owners told Arizona’s Family that someone has been using stolen credit cards, phone orders, a black SUV, and a trailer to take thousands of dollars in ficus trees from local businesses.
Three nurseries confirmed similar cases to the station. One nursery owner said he had heard of eight Valley nurseries affected so far, though police had not publicly confirmed one suspect across every report when the story aired.
The loss is not just a reversed card payment. Matthew Whitfill of Whitfill Nursery told Arizona’s Family that a large ficus tree can represent “about like a 10 year, 12 year investment” of time and water before it ever reaches a customer.
The Gilbert Order Started by Phone
AP Nursery in Gilbert received a phone order for ficus trees paid by credit card, manager Chris Colvin told Arizona’s Family. Colvin said the nursery accepted the order because business had been slower and the sale appeared legitimate.
Surveillance video from June 2 showed a man in a white T-shirt loading about 40 ficus trees onto a trailer pulled by a black SUV, according to the report. Colvin later received notice that the purchase had been reversed because the credit card used in the transaction was stolen.
He told the station AP Nursery’s loss totaled $5,000.
Other Nurseries Reported the Same Pickup Pattern
Arizona Wholesale Growers reported a similar case. General manager Shawn Cox told Arizona’s Family that a man using the alias of a local landscaping company paid for a ficus tree order over the phone with a credit card in late May.
Camera footage showed what looked like the same man, this time wearing black, picking up the trees and loading them into a trailer, according to the station. Cox said the man left with $2,100 worth of product.
Cox told Arizona’s Family he had heard of eight nurseries hit by the same scam so far in the Valley, including Whitfill Nursery in Phoenix.
A Ficus Tree Can Take a Decade to Grow
Whitfill told the station the buyer presented himself as a new landscaper trying to get started in the industry. Although Whitfill did not have surveillance video, he said he recognized the same black SUV described in other reports.
“A ficus tree like this, without exaggerating, is about like a 10 year, 12 year investment of our time and our water,” Whitfill told Arizona’s Family. “To get it up to this size and just to be out, that is, it doesn’t feel good.”
For nurseries, the chargeback hits after years of growing, watering, moving, and maintaining the trees. Once the pickup vehicle leaves, the business can be left without the plants or the payment.
Police Reports Span Multiple Jurisdictions
Each nursery filed a report with a different police department because the cases happened in separate jurisdictions, according to Arizona’s Family. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office told the station that the fraud case was waiting to be assigned to a detective.
Police had not confirmed the identity of the man shown in surveillance video when the report was published. Investigators also had not confirmed what happened to the trees.
Arizona’s Family reported that the trees could be resold, possibly on Facebook Marketplace, or planted as part of a long-term landscaping job. That had not been confirmed by police.
Nurseries Are Warning Each Other About Phone Orders
The cases show how a stolen-card order can leave a small business exposed when the product is bulky, valuable, and picked up before the chargeback appears. A sale can clear at first, the trees can leave the property, and the payment can be reversed only after the customer and trailer are gone.
For nurseries, landscapers, garden centers, and other small retailers, high-dollar phone orders from new customers may need extra checks before pickup. Owners can compare the cardholder name with the buyer’s name, verify the billing address, ask for identification at pickup, record vehicle details, and delay suspicious orders when the customer is new or the request involves a large same-day pickup.
The Valley cases remain under investigation.