Along the streets of Indian Rocks Beach on Florida’s Gulf Coast, piles of personal contents still remain one week after Helene.
“I’ve been on the beach my whole life and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Alan Agoado of Clearwater Beach Vacation Homes. Nearly all the homes he manages on the beach are now gut jobs.
“One home didn't get any damage, every other house had pretty good damage,” he said.
It’s a mess, but Agoado is finding that an even messier situation is on the rise as, what he suspects, is a wave of swindlers hoping to cash in on disaster.
“I think it's price gouging when you're charging something that is much more than it should be during a time of emergency, absolutely,” he said.
Since Hurricane Helene, Florida’s Attorney General’s office has logged more than 350 complaints about price gouging with the majority of complaints coming from residents in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco Counties.
“The good news is we are not seeing the same kind of contacts, those numbers that we used to see,” Attorney General Ashley Moody said on Thursday.
But of price gouging complaints received, most involve fuel prices, according to a spokesperson from Moody’s office.
In a sampling of complaints provided to us by the Attorney General’s office, a Tampa resident alleged “every time there’s a hurricane or state of emergency, this gas station requires customers to purchase premium gas. Regular gas pumps are shut off,” the complainant wrote.
In another complaint, a gas station in Pinellas County was accused of raising its prices by 10 cents after Governor Ron DeSantis declared a State of Emergency in the county.
According to state law, price gouging only applies to products and services considered essential to preparing or recovering from a storm within areas formally declared a state of emergency.
Those commodities include water, fuel, ice and lumber just to name a few.
In Alan Agoado’s case, his suspected price gouging involved hiked up estimates for common demolition work.
But according to Florida law, that does not constitute price gouging.
“That’s just wild to me,” he said in response. “Because they're able to just come in here from out of state and just charge somebody because they're in need.
Regardless of what the law states, Agoado isn’t backing down.
He recently confronted a group on cell phone video who was trolling one of his neighborhoods.
“I think you need to get out of here,” he can be heard saying in the video.
He posted the video on a neighborhood social media page to warn others.
He also plans on filing a complaint with the state.
Even if it doesn’t fall under the state’s definition of price gouging, he believes it’s still wrong and he wants the powers that be to know about it.
“Don't take advantage of people,” Agoado said.
If you suspect you’ve been a victim of price gouging, report it to the Attorney General’s office here.
For more information on Florida’s price gouging law, click here.
Violators of the price gouging statute are subject to civil penalties of $1,000 per violation and up to a total of $25,000 for multiple violations committed in a single 24-hour period.
In addition to the civil penalties for price gouging, state law criminalizes the sale of goods and services to the public without possession of an occupational license. Violators of the law can be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor.
If you believe you may be the victim of fraud or unfair trade practices, you can also file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office here.
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