HENDRY COUNTY, Fla. — Neighbors in Hendry County thought it was a scam - people knocking on doors claiming to work for Florida Power and Light (FPL) and offering free home energy upgrades.
Fox 4’s Hendry County Community Correspondent, Austin Schargorodski, works in the area daily and regularly checks local Facebook groups. That’s where he saw posts from people, confused, saying the men knocking on doors had no FPL gear and were even trespassing.
Watch to see what people on Facebook said happened:
One woman commented that after saying they weren’t interested the day before, “On Saturday, he showed up at our house anyway, trespassed through a chained gate, and he came up to our lanai to knock on the door.”
“We had two young men onto our property today, going as far as walking around our home," a commenter said. "Left a very similar flyer.”
A third commenter added, “Wow, I got it in the mail and thought it was legit, glad I never called.”
Hendry County Commissioner Ramon Iglesias said those comments got him to look into what happened.
“Any time you have a door to door salesman, you start scratching your head like ‘Is this legit?’, ‘Are they just looking for money?’, ‘Are they looking to figure out when I’m home so they can come back and rob us?’ I’ve heard all sorts of stories through the years - I’ve lived here my whole life," Iglesias said. "I just wanted to make sure that we’ve had it in the past, if it’s a legitimate program, and it’s addressed in the manner it needed to be."
Iglesias said he talked with FPL, confirmed the program was legitimate, and shared that with the community.
Schargorodski also reached out to FPL to find out what went wrong and what comes next.
FPL says it was promoting “Power to Save” - a cost-saving program offering free LED bulbs, low-flow shower heads, and weather stripping. But the people going door to door weren’t FPL employees. They were actually contractors from Honeywell, which FPL says caused confusion.
“They go door to door providing flyers to customers who are then able to call and make an appointment for these installations to take place. I understand there was some confusion because they were saying they were there on behalf of FPL,” said FPL spokesperson Bianca Soriano.
Soriano says they’ve temporarily pulled back the program in Hendry County while they make improvements to the rollout.
“We will continue to work with elected officials to ensure that there’s awareness in the community and prevent any customers from feeling concerned that someone is at their door providing this information,” she said.
Soriano says when the program returns after some adjustments are made, customers won’t just get a knock at the door. She says they’ll receive a flyer or mailer first, with a phone number and QR code to set an appointment, only if they want to.
