Contractor’s error happy addition to couple’s home

Some people receive cookies or wine when they move into a new neighborhood.

Ben and Peggy Snow got a new driveway — accompanied by a mystery.

In April, the couple bought a new home in Berwick, looking to downsize from their 3,700-square-foot Blacklick house.

About 10 days ago, Ben drove to the new house to meet a contractor who was doing some work before the couple moves in.

What Snow found shocked him.

“As I got closer, I noticed that my driveway was gone,” said Snow, a partner in Calhoun Plumbing. “Talk about doing a double-take. I thought, ‘What the heck is going on here?’ “

Snow returned the next day to find a new, 60-foot concrete driveway with a turn-around pad.

There was no bill, no sign, just a sparkling new driveway. Snow asked his immediate neighbors if they knew what happened but learned nothing. He even called his insurance agent, who suggested filing a police report.

“That sounded a bit crazy,” Snow said. “What was I going to say? ‘Hello, officer, someone stole my driveway?’ “

Snow said his driveway wasn’t in great shape, but he figured he could get another five or 10 years out of it.

He wasn’t the only one perplexed.

Two doors down, Kyra Crockett-Hodge and her husband, Giovanni Hodge, were waiting for their new driveway to be poured when

they noticed that the Snows’ driveway had been replaced.

“We are all pretty close in the neighborhood; the kids play ball on our driveway,” said Crockett-Hodge. “Everybody knew we were getting ready to get our driveway done. They saw the neighbors’ driveway and said, ‘That’s a coincidence.’ My husband automatically figured it was the wrong one.”

Crockett-Hodge called the concrete company and discovered the truth.

“The guy — I felt so bad for him. He’s a really, really nice guy. He just had the wrong Ben and Peggy Snow got a surprise at their new home: a new driveway poured by a concrete company at the wrong address. house.”

He told Crockett-Hodge he would eat the cost.

“He’s doing everything

right,” she said. “He said, ‘Of course, I’m going to take care of it.’ “

I asked Crockett-Hodge to pass along my name to the concrete company but didn’t hear from the firm. The Snows also haven’t spoken with the company, but as a home service provider himself, Snow is sympathetic.

“The men did such a good job,” Snow said. “My wife and I actually feel sorry for the mistake.”

Crockett-Hodge will soon get her own new driveway, as well as the new neighbors.

“Hey, welcome to the neighborhood,” she joked. “You get a new driveway.”