Apopka, Florida, is a suburb of Orlando, about a half-an-hour drive from Walt Disney World (here's a map). Its name comes from a Seminole word meaning "potato-eating place" according to its Wikipedia entry, but beyond that, there isn't much that is all that interesting about the town of about 55,000 residents. It's just a regular American town. People live there, work there, go to school there, and of course, come home to find that their driveways have been stolen.

No, no, that last part isn't true. Only one family had their driveway stolen.

In May 2019, a single mother named Amanda Brochu purchased a home in Apopka for about $175,000, according to Zillow. Five and a half years later, she decided it was time to move, and entered into a contract to purchase another home. That sale, though, was contingent on her selling the place she purchased in Apopka -- and Brochu believed was in a good position to sell. As the listing noted, the house had a new roof and the home wasn't subject to the whims of a homeowner's association (or HOA); Brochu's realtor saw these as attractive to would-be buyers. The home went up for sale in early December of 2023.

Soon thereafter, Brochu and her son began receiving odd visitors. Contractors were stopping by to take measurements and, generally, get a better feel for the house, as if they were about to do construction. That's not that unusual when homes are on the market, as would-be buyers may want to make changes to the home, but typically that happens (if at all) only after those buyers first tour the place. And that hadn't happened in this situation. As WFTV9, the local TV station, reported, Brochu "confronted one of [the contractors], who said a man by the name of 'Andre' ached out to him to ask about a driveway replacement quote. The contractor said Andre claimed to be the landlord and gave Brochu Andre’s phone number. Text messages supplied by the contractor show Andre received a quote for $7,200 to replace the driveway and agreed to the price. However, Andre said he couldn’t meet the contractor to drop off the deposit." 

That contractor moved on, but another, apparently, accepted "Andre's" bid -- because as WSVN News in Miami reported, a week later "an image from Brochu’s doorbell camera captured a bulldozer tearing out the concrete and hauling it away." Someone had stolen the Brochu's driveway, leaving nothing but a dirt path, as seen below.