We undoubtedly live in an era of more bizarre scams than the human mind can reasonably comprehend. There are entire subreddits, websites and YouTube channels dedicated not only to helping people identify scams but even bait scammers into wasting their time. There are crypto scams, romance scams and endless Facebook Marketplace-based scams, but have you ever heard of a driveway-removal scam?


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A single mother in Florida went to the media after someone pretending to be a contractor made off with her entire driveway. After listing her house for sale in December, Amanda Brochu was suddenly inundated with contractors coming by the house to measure the driveway; according to her son, as many as five stopped by in just a few days.



Amanda confronted one of the contractors, who said he’d been contacted by a man named “Andrew” who claimed he was the landlord and wanted a quote for replacing the driveway. After the contractor demanded full payment for the $7,200 job and proof of ownership before he would start, he disappeared. After police contacted him, he said it was case of giving the contractors the wrong address, and there would be no issues going forward.


Unfortunately, the next week, Amanda’s driveway was gone. Her realtor posted about the shocking theft in a Facebook group for realtors across the U.S., and others began sharing similar stories about contractors attempting to perform other unwanted work on homes listed for sale. While many involved the contractors themselves, one incident that the TV station WFTV found involved a door-to-door scammer who would hire companies to do paving work while keeping the money for himself.


Police in Orange County, Florida have launched a criminal mischief investigation into the missing driveway. In the meantime, Amanda was still on the hook for her new home, and needed the money from selling her current one to make the down payment. The $10,000 she was quoted to replace the driveway was money she simply didn’t have. Fortunately, she was able to raise it via a GoFundMe. Better yet, after seeing the story on WFTV, a station sponsor offered to replace the driveway for free. And so, Amanda will now be donating the money to a local nonprofit.


Not exactly a new driveway paved in gold, but a new driveway nonetheless, which is all that really matters in this case.