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EL PASO - A West El Paso army wife paid thousands of dollars to re-landscape her backyard and surprise her husband who's coming home from overseas. The problem is, the landscapers took her money and never finished the job.

"I've been crying for days because now it's too late. He's coming home on Saturday and what do I tell him," Atoyia holt asked.

Holt's husband hasn't been home for seven months, he's deployed in Qatar. That's why she wanted to surprise him with a re-landscaped backyard

"The last thing I want him to do is come home and spend his time that he's home with his family working on a yard. So, it was important for me to get it done so when he came home he could just relax. He could sit in his Jacuzzi, his hot tub and just be home instead of worrying about doing yard work in 104 degrees,"

Holt paid three thousand, three hundred dollars to a landscape company to have the job finished two weeks ago.
Now there's no new grass, an incomplete flower bed, the trees aren't trimmed and a pile of top soil sitting in the front yard.

"They started two days later than they were supposed to and they never finished the job. They never came back. They came back to get their tools and they won't return my phone calls so I'm stuck,"

We called the owner of the landscaping company. He took full responsibility for the work not being done. He said he had a family crisis.

"I'm sorry for his loss, but what about mine," holt asked.

The owner of the company told us it was very, very unprofessional that he didn't call her back. He apologized, and he told us he would refund all of Mrs. Holt's money or finish the job if he's allowed to. Although, at this point it looks like a surprise for a well deserving soldier won't happen in time.

"He's got to go back. This is only a short time he has with his family, and here we are now working on this. It's hurtful and it's frustrating for me because I just wanted something beautiful for him to come home to," Holt said.

Tomorrow morning, a group of Fort Bliss Soldiers will volunteer their time to help her clean up the yard. In exchange for their service, we're told, Fort Bliss will give them credit for physical training.

Of course, we'll be sure to let you know if the job gets done by the contractor or if the money is returned.