The Office of Florida’s Attorney General is crediting News 6 with exposing a local business that was allegedly selling hot tubs in violation of a court order.
The state recently filed a motion in Volusia County Circuit Court accusing Dylan and Chelsie Placker of shuttering an “unlawful” hot tub business after News 6 published an investigative report about the couple last year.
The state is asking a judge to reinstate a nearly half-million-dollar judgment against the Plackers and order any appropriate “civil or criminal contempt proceedings”, court records show.
Four years ago, News 6 began reporting on complaints from customers who claimed the Plackers sold leaky and defective hot tubs on Facebook Marketplace.
The attorney general’s office sued the Plackers in 2024 for violating Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act after receiving complaints from more than 30 consumers, court records show.
To settle those claims, the following year the Plackers signed an agreement that banned them from owning or operating any business in Florida.
The settlement, which a judge entered as a court order in February 2025, also prohibited the couple from working for anyone in Florida who “sells, repairs, refurbishes, cleans, warrants, constructs or otherwise provides” any hot tub or spa.
As part of the stipulated permanent injunction, the attorney general was granted a $471,096 final judgment against the Plackers to be used as restitution for their former customers.
However, the couple indicated on sworn financial disclosures that they could not afford to pay the full amount, court records show.
Based on those disclosures, the attorney general agreed to suspend a large portion of the judgment and required the Plackers to pay a total of $10,850 in monthly installments of about $885.
About six months after a judge signed off on the settlement, News 6 received an anonymous tip claiming the Plackers had resumed operation of a hot tub business at a storage unit in a Port Orange warehouse complex.
Video captured surreptitiously by News 6 over several days showed the Plackers repeatedly visiting the warehouse where used hot tubs were being stored inside and outside.
News 6 also recorded video of the Plackers towing a hot tub on a trailer to the warehouse.
Additional video captured by News 6 showed the Plackers operating a fishing boat and driving a pick-up truck that the attorney general’s office later said the couple owned but failed to document on their sworn financial disclosure forms.
News 6 identified several Facebook Marketplace accounts selling hot tubs linked to the Volusia County warehouse under user names like “Ronaldo Kelp” and “Sabrina Thompson”
One customer told News 6 he purchased a $2,300 used hot tub from the “Sabrina Thompson” account that leaked and did not function after it was delivered to his home.
The day after News 6 investigative reporter Mike DeForest published a report titled “Is this Florida couple violating a ban on selling hot tubs?”, the Plackers told News 6 they pawned their fishing boat and moved back to their home state of Oklahoma.
By then, court records show the office of Florida’s attorney general had begun investigating whether the couple had breached the terms of the settlement agreement.
Nearly a year later, the attorney general’s office is now asking a judge to find the Plackers in violation the court order.
“(Consumer Protection Division Investigator Patrick McBride) confirmed information reported by Mr. DeForest of WKMG Channel 6 TV that the (Plackers) were continuing to clean, sell and transport hot tubs in the state of Florida Contrary to the Final Judgment’s injunctive terms,” an assistant attorney general wrote in an Oct. 13 motion.
The Plackers also violated the agreement by failing to make three of their monthly restitution payments and failing to disclose their ownership of a boat, trailer and Ford F-250 truck, according to the attorney general’s office.
In court papers, state investigators referenced a News 6 Facebook post showing Dylan Placker being stopped by Daytona Beach police last year for an unrelated traffic offense.
Dylan Placker can be heard on video captured by the officer’s body-worn camera saying his wife has “bookoos of money”.
“Bookoo” is slang for the French word beaucoup, meaning “a lot”.
“(Dylan) Placker’s statement against interest to law enforcement about Mrs. Placker having ‘bookoo money’ shows that the Plackers were untruthful and not forthcoming in their sworn financial statements and supporting documents,” the attorney general’s office wrote. “The Defendants shuttered their unlawful business operations and household overnight once discovered and fled the state of Florida to evade this Court and the Final Judgment in this matter, to which they agreed, after exposing the Defendants’ willful contempt toward the Final Judgment.”
The Plackers were given an opportunity to respond to a list of questions posed by the attorney general’s office about their business activity and finances, but records show the couple failed to respond by the court-imposed deadline.
An attorney who represents the Plackers did not respond to phone calls and emails from News 6 seeking comment. The couple has not yet responded to the attorney general’s motion in court.
In September 2025, two days after News 6 published video of the Plackers, court records show Chelsie Placker sent an email to the attorney general’s office stating the couple had left Florida permanently with no plans to return.
“We are not bad people; we’ve simply made some business decisions that we deeply regret,” Chelsie Placker wrote in the email. “Our only goal has been to provide a stable and decent life for our two children.”
Court records indicate the Plackers now live in Oklahoma, where the couple is banned from selling hot tubs under a separate settlement agreement with that state’s attorney general.
Read the affidavit filed by a consumer protection investigator with the Florida Office of the Attorney General in the media player below.
