A woman in Sanford, Florida, came home stunned when she discovered that someone had removed her entire driveway, despite her never having hired anyone to replace it.
Luz Lenzi says she hired someone to repair a crack in her driveway, but weeks after that person completed the job, someone stole her entire driveway.
“I didn’t hire them. I didn’t need to have my driveway redone,” Lenzi told WKMG News.
Lenzi said she found out about the bizarre situation when a friend called her to say, “There is a mountain in front of your house and your driveway is gone.”
According to police, she hadn’t called a contractor or signed any permits to have her driveway removed. Despite that, a crew showed up, tore it out, and began installing a new one.
Not only that, the job was contracted under someone else’s name and had allegedly been paid for with a $15,000 check from a company called SOIL Realty LLC, listed out of New Mexico. Then the check bounced and the contractor quit mid-job.
By tracing bank transactions, internet addresses and Google records tied to an email address used in the deal, investigators determined the scam originated in Nigeria.
“I said, Nigeria, like in Africa? And he said, yes,” Lenzi recalled. “I said, how? I was shocked.”
Initially, the contractor, who had never met the client and had never filed a permit before starting the work, declined to repair the driveway, claiming that the business was also a victim. But in the end, they paid Lenzi back for her repairs, she claimed.
Investigators believe the scammers may have been trying to extort money from the contractor. Additionally, they think Lenzi’s home was targeted since it was for sale at the time.
A similar scam happened to another woman in Florida
In December of 2023, a woman in Apopka, Florida, came home from work one day and was shocked to discover that her entire driveway had been stolen as part of a scam also believed to have been targeting contractors. Her bizarre tale also began when she put her house up for sale.
She said that she had replaced the roof and done other work on the home to try and increase its resale value. Then one day her son informed her that not one, but five different contractors showed up at her house to measure the driveway. She hadn’t asked any of them to do any work on her driveway.
Sensing a scam in the making, she contacted police. When police contacted the scammer, he claimed it was just a case of having the wrong address. A week later, her driveway was gone.
Naturally, trying to sell her home without a driveway caused her much concern. One contractor quoted her a price of $10,000 to replace the concrete driveway. Thankfully, once news of what happened to her got out, a company offered to pay for it.