Dozens of families say their Thanksgiving was ruined because a caterer they hired didn’t deliver, and despite pre-paying, many of them still haven’t seen their turkey.
The Deer Park Police Department confirms reports have been made and an investigation is underway involving Maddhouse Catering.
Many customers spent hundreds pre-purchasing meat or meals but had to scramble to find other plans or cancel Thanksgiving altogether.
“He would do a fried turkey, a smoked turkey, a smoked ham, four sides, and one dessert for $220,” said Dana Milburn, who decided to cater Thanksgiving for 20 people for the first time ever.
She asked for an invoice multiple times and paid the money using Venmo back on Halloween. All of the communication for the catering was done using Facebook Messenger, she said.
“On Tuesday, I called her and I said, ‘You know, I keep having nightmares I’m going to be eating at Luby’s on Thanksgiving Day’,” Milburn said, but the woman on the phone told her everything was taken care of and that the meal would be delivered between noon and 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving.
She checked Facebook that morning and saw a post from the man who runs the business about running out of food.
She went by the address listed on the Facebook page, where she said dozens of people were lining the street or in the driveway also waiting for their meals.
“After watching for a while and making sure no food was coming out, I left, went to H-E-B, they were closed, contacted my family and things just went from bad to worse,” Milburn said. “Everybody was very upset. Nobody came over. We were just all in shock.”
Others couldn’t believe it either.
“We’ve been trying to call him early since Wednesday,” said Albert Fernandez, whose daughter pre-paid for a meal for the family as well. “I had to go to Kroger’s and get chickens, whatever little they had.”
Susan Bramblett bought $60 worth of meat to enjoy with her husband who’s in hospice.
“We had each other, but we had no fried turkey,” she said. “He needs to be held accountable and he needs to stand up for what he did wrong and, you know, not run.”
Days before Thanksgiving, the man who runs the business posted on Facebook about a “flash sale” for Turkey Day.
But at 6:21 a.m. on Thanksgiving day, in a misspelled Facebook post, he wrote that they ran out of food and the oven caught fire, that they did their math wrong and they were trying to figure some things out.
Outside the home on Friday afternoon, only KPRC 2′s cameras captured Deer Park police arresting a woman identified as Shannon Richards, on an unrelated Harris County drug warrant.
Posts by the man who runs the business make reference to someone named “Shannon” several times.
He declined requests to speak to cameras on Friday.
“It’s just a shame that it had to wind up like this,” Fernandez said.
Milburn’s family Thanksgiving got pushed back a day, and some of the family gathered around the table to enjoy a Texas staple: Whataburger.
“Would you say that Whataburger saved Thanksgiving?” KPRC 2′s Bryce Newberry asked Milburn.
“Oh, yes, definitely,” she said. “Today we were able to laugh. And, you know, yesterday it was not a very laughable matter ... A Thanksgiving we’ll never forget. But ... there is just a big void. You know, it’s like the holiday didn’t really happen.”
A search of Texas state business records didn’t return any results for Maddhouse Catering or the man who runs the business. Harris County records from 2012 show his name connected to a business called “Maddhouse Cookers” but that expired last year and doesn’t appear to have been renewed.