A Florida woman came home to a mountain of dirt where her driveway used to be, and she never hired anyone to touch it

A homeowner in Sanford, Florida, returned to her property to find her entire driveway removed without her permission, leaving behind only a large pile of dirt. As detailed by BroBible, Luz Lenzi never authorized the work and had not hired anyone to replace her concrete. The discovery came after she had previously hired someone to address a minor crack in the driveway, unrelated to the demolition that followed.

The situation traced back to someone claiming to represent a real estate company, who hired a contractor to carry out the work. This client provided a $15,000 check from a company identified as SOIL Realty LLC, purportedly based in New Mexico. The contractor, who had never met the client in person and had not filed the necessary permits, proceeded to tear out the driveway before the check bounced and the job was abandoned midway through.

Local police say the incident was tied to a larger scam operation based in Nigeria, a detail confirmed in reporting from ClickOrlando. Investigators traced the scheme through bank transactions, internet addresses, and records linked to the email used in the fraudulent deal.

The homeowner wasn’t even the scammers’ actual target

Authorities believe the scam was designed to extort money from the contractor rather than target Lenzi directly, and they suggest her home may have been chosen because it was listed for sale at the time. When police told her the scam originated overseas, Lenzi said she was stunned, telling police, “I was shocked.”

The contractor initially refused to repair the damage, saying they had also been misled by the scheme, but the company later agreed to cover the cost of restoring Lenzi’s driveway. Cases like this have become more common as scammers look for new financial targets, a pattern also seen in a years-long scam that separately left an elderly couple homeless.

A similar incident occurred in Apopka, Florida, in December 2023, when another homeowner also returned to find her driveway missing after listing her house for sale. Her son had reported seeing five different contractors arrive to measure the property despite no bids having been requested, and the driveway was removed about a week after she contacted police. Amid a broader rise in scams targeting people through everyday social media activity, a separate case saw a traveler’s bank accounts frozen after a similar deception.

In that Apopka case, the scammer told police it was a mix-up over the address, and a company eventually stepped in to cover the $10,000 replacement cost after the story drew attention.