GREENFIELD — Four years after the Attorney General’s office accused a former Greenfield business, Greenfield Granite, of taking customers’ money, some of those who were affected have received checks from the state.
The AG’s office sued the former local monument company and its registered agent, Cynthia A. Heck, Pendleton, in Sept. 2020. The civil action accused the company under the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act of taking customers’ money without providing gravestones they ordered.
Heck is the mother of Amie Strohl, who was running the business with her husband, James Strohl, until she died on Sept. 8.
Heck’s death, which authorities said was of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, came on the same day she was to appear in small claims court to answer a complaint that Greenfield Granite had not delivered a grave marker a customer had paid for months earlier.
In Dec. of 2020, Greenfield Granite was ordered to pay $379,500 to customers after a judge had ruled in favor of the Indiana attorney general’s office in its civil case against the business.
Mary Collins of Greenfield was the first person who called authorities to let them know the longtime local business, Greenfield Granite, had been taking money from customers and not providing a service.
Collins told the Daily Reporter she lost $1,850 after paying Greenfield Granite to make a memorial bench for her husband’s grave site. Collins invested another $2,300 to get the memorial elsewhere. Collins received a check for $187 from the state.
State officials distributed more than $18,000 in more than 100 checks to consumers — far less than the $379,500 judgment.
“While our office’s goal is to be able to provide impacted consumers full restitution as we obtained in the order, unfortunately in some cases that is not possible,” an official spokesperson with the Attorney General’s Office said in a release. “Often, businesses that are in this position do not have any assets we can recover. In this matter, we are pleased to be able to have recovered a portion of our judgment and return it to consumers.”
Officials from the AG’s office went on to say they received a default judgment against Greenfield Granite with a total monetary award of $379,500. However, there is not an entity in existence to recover these funds from.
“Because the judgment also empowered the our office to take possession of any tangible business property and liquidate it, we have been able to obtain a percentage of the judgment amount,” the official said. “We took possession and sold the recovered tangible property of Greenfield Granite at auction. The auction proceeds of $18,336.98 are being distributed to known consumers impacted by the Greenfield Granite’s business practices. The remaining judgment is still outstanding.”
The state was also able to return headstones to some customers. A new monument business, Wearly Monuments, opened in the former Greenfield Granite spot in 2022.
