Naples Police Say a Landscaper Who Left a Family’s Hurricane Ian Yard Repairs Unfinished Came Back Four Years Later Demanding $100,000 in 12 Hours

A Naples family hired a landscaper in 2022 to repair a yard torn up by Hurricane Ian. According to WINK News, police say the work was never finished, the landscaper disappeared for about six months, and the family held back roughly $100,000 they would have owed for the job.

Four years later, police say, he came back for the money. Christopher Cueva, 27, was arrested on Oct. 8 after Naples police say he left a voicemail telling the family they had less than 12 hours to send him $100,000.

A Hurricane Ian Yard Job Left Unfinished

Hurricane Ian left a long tail of repair work across southwest Florida, and a long tail of repair disputes with it. On Oct. 12, WGCU reported that a Naples cabinet company owner, Christopher Edward Kane, 60, was sentenced to more than five years in prison and ordered to repay over $308,000 after taking payments from Lee County customers for Ian repairs he never finished.

The family in this case hired Cueva in 2022 to repair landscaping that Ian had damaged, according to WINK. Police say he left the job unfinished and was gone for about six months. Because the work was never completed, the family withheld about $100,000. That is the same figure police say Cueva later demanded from them.

The family has not been named. WINK reported that three people were identified as victims, and that at least two of them are 65 or older. The demands reached both a family business and a family member’s home.

The Voicemail and the 12-Hour Deadline

The contact started again in September 2026, according to police. Investigators say Cueva repeatedly reached out to the family and demanded payment. One voicemail stands out in the police account. In it, Cueva allegedly told one of the victims they had less than 12 hours to send him $100,000.

On Sept. 12, police say, he went to the family’s business. The same day, he allegedly posted a Facebook video recorded outside one of the victims’ homes.

The Arrest and the Charges

Naples police opened an investigation on Sept. 16. The case was handled by the department’s General Crimes Detective Unit, WINK reported.

Collier County deputies arrested Cueva on Thursday, Oct. 8, after a traffic stop. He remained in Collier County Sheriff’s Office custody, according to the station.

He faces three charges:

• Written or electronic threats to kill or cause bodily injury, a crime under Florida Statute 836.10
• Stalking and cyberstalking, which Florida Statute 784.048 defines and punishes
• Assault on a person 65 or older, which Florida Statute 784.08 upgrades to a more serious offense than an ordinary assault

These are allegations. Cueva has not been convicted, and the case will move through the Collier County courts.

Why Unfinished Yard Jobs Turn Into Fights

The family’s decision to hold back payment for unfinished work is at the heart of this dispute. Florida lets homeowners look up a contractor before paying through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s license search. Written contracts, payments tied to finished stages and dated photos of the work are the records that settle disputes like this one later.

The Cueva case runs the other way from the Kane case, where customers paid and got nothing. Here, the family kept its money, and police say the threats came years later.

What Comes Next

The case now sits with prosecutors in Collier County. Under state law, assault on a person 65 or older carries a higher offense level than the same act against a younger person.

For the family, the yard Ian damaged in 2022 is still the starting point of a fight that police say turned into threats four years later. No court date had been reported as of Oct. 28.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: PCHS-NJROTC – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons