‘They’re not coming back’: Child scammers get the best of naive new teacher who’s just moved into the neighborhood, or so she thinks

A word of advice. Generally speaking, never pay someone for a service upfront in full before they provide it. It’s one thing to wait for a Big Mac after paying, but it’s quite another to agree to a very vague deposit from a cold-caller.

This rule rings true even if the hustlers in question are just starting middle school, a rule that TikTok‘s @fairyniceofyou seems to have forgotten. And indeed, a learning experience was quick to follow her lapse in judgement. The twist is that she learned that her new neighborhood was full of some alright kids.

The three-and-a-half minute storytime above lays out all the background details. Mandie was vibing in her new house one morning, having just moved to the neighborhood about a week ago, when she heard someone at the front door. She goes to greet her visitor, dreading the prospect of talking to an adult this early, and is delighted to see a group of young kids instead.

The kids ask if they can fix up Mandie’s lawn for a fee of $30, but as Mandie only had $18.50 in cash, they eagerly struck a deal. Mandie then hands the money to the kids, who report that they’ll be back as soon as they grab their gear from one of their parents’ houses. They leave, and that’s when it dawns on Mandie that she may have just been scammed.

Luckily, that wasn’t the case. The kids turned out to be true to their word, and were in fact raising money to rebuild their neighborhood’s outdoor hangout area. Mandie, of course, immediately tracked down 12 more dollars in cash when the kids turned out to be the real deal.

The cherry on top? They did a fantastic job on her lawn.

Mandie is now a loyal customer of the Lawn Goonies, whose landscaping competence is only matched by how pleasant their personnel is, and all for the very low cost of $30 a job. To say that’s a deal and a half is an understatement. According to Workwave.com, the average monthly cost of lawn care is $100, with the rough range being from $65 to $150. The lowest extreme of these costs is $40, while the highest extreme is $900.

In other words, Mandie lucked out here, and if the Lawn Goonies keep up the good work that she allowed them to start, maybe they’ll be able to charge $900 a job one day. Follow your dreams, kids.