South Florida

NBC 6 Responds Story Leads to Relief for Local Family

Jose Rivera may be 70 years old, but that doesn't mean he's slowing down.

"[He's] still doing lawn service and landscaping," said his daughter, Lissette Rivera.

When Hurricane Irma swept through South Florida in September, Jose was offered work picking up debris. According to his daughter, Jose jumped right in and worked long days.

"12 hours plus," Lissette said. "As long as there was daylight, he was there."

According to Jose, the man who hired him was named "Elio". It's the same person who hired three other men who contacted NBC 6 Responds in 2017, after waiting weeks to get thousands of dollars in payments for debris cleanup.

"It's money hard worked and I mean everybody here works for bills," Kenia Mirabal, a Homestead resident, told NBC 6 Responds back then.

NBC 6 Responds helped the group by tracking down the company that had hired Elio, recovering $18,984 for them. The story struck a nerve with Lissette, whose father was also left waiting for his money.

"It's very frustrating that he's 70 years old, still working all these hours, all this hard work and somebody tries to scam him the $4,000 dollars," she said.

They tried to get results on their own, but got nowhere until Lissette emailed NBC 6 Responds copies of the load tickets her father had collected clearing debris.

"Within 5 days of that email, I got contacted by the actual company that hired Elio as a contractor," Lissette said. She added that a representative from the company apologized and "within 2 days she sent me the check."

She's glad she asked for help - NBC 6 Responds helped her father recover the $3,800 he says he was owed.

"Now I will pay more attention to that NBC Responds side of the show because it really, you really make a difference in the community," Lissette said.

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