If you leave things in your yard, you shouldn’t be surprised if they get stolen. People are opportunistic, and if they see your kid’s bike sitting there unsecured, they may decide it’s a perfect opportunity to give it to their kid. Heck, sometimes even entire cars get stolen out of driveways. It sucks, but it happens. However, one Florida woman recently came home to find that her entire driveway had been stolen, WFTV reports.
According to the victim, Amanda Brochu, it all began when she put her house up for sale. She had some renovations done, including replacing the roof. Over the course of several days, her son counted at least five contractors coming by to measure the driveway. When confronted, one of the contractors said a man who identified himself as “Andre” had contacted them about a driveway replacement and claimed he was the landlord. When asked for proof that he owned the house, he stopped responding.
Brocue then called the cops, who got in contact with “Andre,” who claimed he accidentally gave the contractor the wrong address. Not long after that, her driveway disappeared. “I come home and my driveway is gone,” Amanda Brochu told the news outlet.
As it turned out, Brochu and the contractor who removed her driveway were victims of an overpayment scam. Scammers like “Andre” look for houses that are listed for sale online, pretend to be the homeowner and get a contractor to give them a quote for some work on the house. Then they’ll send a check for more than the agreed-upon amount. Then they ask for a refund. After the contractor sends the extra money back, they find out the check bounces, meaning they don’t get paid and they just lost whatever money they refunded.
While the scammer still hasn’t been arrested, the good news for Brochu is, she won’t have to pay for a new driveway. After the story originally aired, a local business volunteered to replace her driveway for free. Still, it’s a good reminder that if you aren’t careful, if you try to sell a house, you need to be careful that someone doesn’t steal your driveway.
read more: https://jalopnik.com/florida-woman-had-her-entire-driveway-stolen-1851149403
It looks like they stole the overlayment, which was likely brick or stone pavers. Depending on the material each piece can be $1+, and can easily be re-used or sold. As they don’t “glue” them down and are only kept tight with powdered rock and a packed underlayment, removal can be started from an edge or corner and completed in a couple hours
In a subsequent update article it was explained what happened. It was not stealing a driveway, which was a regular paved driveway.
The scam was one of those bad check scams. Someone pretended to be a homeowner asking a contractor for a task. Contractor does task, fake homeowner gives a check but uh oh it was for the wrong amount, can you just refund me the difference?
Check is bad. “Refund” is good. Scammer has money and disappears. When the contractor goes to collect the homeowner isnt the person they dealt with.