Crofton * Odenton * Fort Meade * Gambrills

Gardeners abscond with cash deposits

County police are searching for two men and a woman who solicited more than $400 from a group of Odenton residents for landscaping services that never were completed.

Police said four residents in the 1000 block of New Dawn Way reported that a man, identifying himself as Jimmy, approached each of them Friday about providing landscape work. In each case, the man requested a deposit to buy materials. The residents gave him deposits ranging from $50 to $80.

Residents said the man was accompanied by a woman who identified herself as Mary Miller and a second unidentified man. The trio began working in each yard, planting a dogwood tree in one, juniper plants in another, cutting the grass in a third and spreading mulch in a fourth.

But in each case, the trio requested additional money to complete the work, then fled before completing the job.

The three are described as: a white man, about 5 feet 9, 140 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes and a tattoo on his upper right arm that reads "Mary & Dave"; a white woman, about 5 feet 7, heavyset with long brown hair; and a white man, about 5 feet 7, with a small build, a mustache and front teeth missing.