A Florida woman reportedly had her driveway ripped up and stolen away as part of an alleged scam carried out by someone in Nigeria.
Luz Lenzi returned to her home in Sanford, about 30 miles north of Orlando, in February to find a mountain of rubble where her driveway once was.
“I didn’t hire them, I didn’t need to have my driveway redone,” Lenzi told News 6.
Police say someone claiming to be from a real estate company hired a contractor to update the driveway. However, the contractor abruptly stopped working on the driveway when a $15,000 check provided to pay for the job bounced.
The check was written by a New Mexico-listed company, “SOIL Realty LLC,” which investigators later tracked back to Nigeria.
Authorities said the contractor did not meet with the client and did not file a permit to do the work on the driveway.
However, police uncovered the true origin of the scam by tracing bank transactions and Google records tied to an email address used in the deal, leading them to internet addresses in Nigeria.
“I said, Nigeria, like in Africa? And he said, yes,” Lenzi recalled. “I said, how? I was shocked.”
Sanford police believe Lenzi was not the primary target of the alleged scam, according to the department and News 6. Investigators suspect the scheme was designed to defraud the contractor hired for the work, although it remains unclear how the scammer ultimately intended to profit.
Police also believe Lenzi’s property was chosen because it had been listed for sale.
Lenzi first discovered the damage after a colleague called to tell her there was “a mountain” in front of her house and that the driveway was gone, News 6 previously reported.
According to News 6, the contractor initially declined to pay for repairs, saying the company had also been victimized. Lenzi later said the contractor agreed to reimburse her for the cost of fixing the driveway.