Buyer left red faced after address mix-up

Disposing of your new neighbour’s outdoor furniture is hardly the way to make a good first impression.

When former Aotea resident Cathy Love and her family moved into their Queenstown home, her outdoor table, chairs and loungers didn’t suit the new digs.

Selling it off online seemed a simple enough solution, but it quickly became complicated just before Christmas when the buyer collected what she thought she had paid for from the wrong address.

Love had posted a photo of her unwanted garden furniture on a Queenstown community trading site.

‘‘A hundred dollars; who wants it?"she had said.

She soon got a message, as it turned out from her son’s preschool teacher, and the deal was done.

The woman texted just after midday on the day in question: she had borrowed a car with a towbar and a trailer – could she pick her purchase up?

Of course, Love said, but she would be out biking with her two boys. ‘‘I put it in the driveway and said ‘help yourself’. When I got home from my bike ride, I thought ‘that’s odd – it’s still here’.’’

When she visited the local community Facebook page later, the penny dropped.

A post from a nearby resident at 6 Jack’s Point Rd said her outdoor furniture had all been stolen, and she had called the police.

‘‘Turns out my lady had got the wrong house and they just happened to have almost identical furniture set up in their yard.’’ she said.

As instructed, the buyer had helped herself. Love contacted her to explain the situation.

‘‘She was mortified when she discovered she had stolen someone else’s furniture.’’

She said her neighbour was very understanding once she found it was just a mistake.

‘‘The neighbours have been able to have a laugh about it.’’

It was one way to meet the new neighbours, but a lot more stressful than it needed to be, Love said.