Amazon is a massive company that makes unfathomable amounts of money selling products made by exploited workers, driving local businesses to bankruptcy and generally doing nothing to help local communities. So what if we told you that one TikToker figured out a weird trick to make Amazon pay to fix the potholes in your area? It almost sounds too good to be true, and yet, at least in the short term, that’s exactly what they were able to do.
Now, to be clear, they didn’t get Amazon to agree to pay to repair the potholes. Amazon had no idea what was going on, or at least it didn’t until Oobah Butler posted this video on TikTok. That may ultimately end up becoming a problem down the line, but that’s an issue for Future Oobah to deal with. Present Day Oobah, on the other hand, gets to sit back and enjoy the views and likes rolling in.
[Update 7/11: As a couple of people have pointed out, this TikTok was cut from a longer video that explains why Butler felt so confident publicly bragging about defrauding Amazon. Apparently, before ordering the pothole filler, they set up a shell company in Belize and placed the order through the shell company’s business account, thus reducing the odds of Amazon being able to do anything about the fraud. We’ve embedded the entire video at the bottom of this post, timestamped to the relevant part about potholes and shell companies.]
So how did they do it? Well, Butler started by giving Amazon some of their money. In exchange, Amazon sent them some pothole filler. Butler then hopped in a van with a friend and drove around town filling in potholes. They made sure to wear reflective vests for safety — OK, let’s be honest, to look more official — so you don’t have to worry about them getting hit. And then, once they were done, they simply refilled the boxes with enough sand to ensure they weighed exactly as much as they did when they arrived. One quick return later, they had their money back. So in a way, Amazon did technically pay for the pothole repairs.
Assuming they actually did this, it’s entirely possible that Amazon will go after them for fraud. Still, at least temporarily, Butler got Amazon to do some good in their community. Sort of.