Rieke Tree Service/ Justin Rieke7 Signed a contract then never showed up to do the work. Wonderlake Illinois

We signed acontract with Justin Rieke to have a tree and stump removed from our property, he took half the money up front then never showed up to do the work. We contacted him and were told he had equipment problems the were being repaired, after that contactwe tried to contact him again with no luck. After 3 months we took him smalls claim court and he never showed up on the court date, a couple of attorneys were sitting in the court room when our case was called and they said and I quote. We know that name good luck getting your money back. After that we posted on Facebook about him and come to find out there are many people that he has screwed and taken there money that reached out to me and my wife to find out if we have had any luck and if we did what did we do. After just over 1 year we still have had no progress getting our money back from him.