Earlier this year, a video showing a dispute between construction workers and a woman in the City of Logan, Queensland, Australia, went viral.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Reportedly, the woman had hired the workers to lay a new driveway for her home, but she was unimpressed by the quality of the job. Refusing to pay, the woman then saw how the workers smashed and destroyed the driveway they had been working on.
Reportedly, Viola, the homeowner, had agreed to pay $4,012 for the job. When she saw the results of the workers's job, she instead paid them $1,670 and insisted that they finish the job. That is where the workers told Viola to pay them or they would smash the concrete. The dispute continued and, eventually, the workers began using their tools to destroy the driveway, filming themselves doing it and posting it on social media.
"This is what happens when you don't want to pay for work carried out at your place," said Jesse Crowe, one of the workers. The cameraman also joined Crowe's sentiment. "Should have paid," he said. "Now it's going to cost more to get it all dug up, taken away and poured again."
A Dispute With Consequences
Later, both Crowe and Viola spoke with 7NEWS and each gave statements regarding the viral video. "It comes to a point where you're in the trade for a long time and you're doing the right thing by people, and they don't want to pay at the end of the day, so what are you gonna do?" said Crowe. He stated that he takes pride in his job and he doesn't like destroying things he's built.
Viola, on the other hand, stated that she felt threatened after raising questions about the job's quality. According to her, they just poured the concrete out without laying mesh, as she asked.
"They tried to scare me. I was alone in the house (and) they knew I was alone," Viola told 7NEWS. "They say 'you're paying now ... or we will smash the concrete." Reportedly, Viola suffered stress after the incident and collapsed in a shopping center just two days after the incident. Viola and her family continue to live with the damaged driveway.
The video sparked debate among users across social media. In particular, Daniel ShenSmith, a YouTuber, shed some light on the legality of the situation. "A builder cannot just come in and smash things up, dismantle things, and take them away," he said. "Usually when they've been subsumed into the property in one form or another they become part of the property. And so this is a very straightforward criminal damage."
