Cartoon map salesman ordered to pay for ripping off small businesses

A judge Thursday ordered Ed Zapencki, also known as "Fast Eddie," a traveling cartoon map salesman to pay $250,000 for ripping off small business owners across the state. It's a scheme exposed by a FOX6 investigation last year, and a state investigation landed Zapencki in court this week, where his lawyer tried to get FOX6's camera removed from
the court room, to no avail.

For more than a decade, the Kenosha salesman hawked his fun treasure maps to small business owners across the state, and raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars up front, then failed to produce the maps for years, if at all. After FOX6 investigated "Fast Eddie's" scheme, the state filed suit against Zapencki, and now, he will be forced to pay restitution to victims like Colleen Elvin, owner of Oh! Zone Salon in Port Washington."

"All of a suddent, he is really having to account for his actions, and it's about time. I'm just glad to know that he's paying for what he's done to other people, because it's just unfair to take advantage of people like that," Elvin said.

As part of an agreement, Zapencki is prohibited from owning or supervising any sales business in Wisconsin, but he can reduce his judgement from $250,000 to $200,000 if he completes the maps he's sold within the next six months. If you paid for an ad, but never got your maps, you're asked to call the state's Consumer Protection Office at 800-422-7128.