A girlfriend for David
I was telling the "Welches" con man story to a friend today, and she topped it. She was in an elevator at the Eastgate Target a couple of weeks ago when a heavy-set late-40's-ish woman got on with her and started sobbing into a cell phone about her supposed predicament. She was in Portland because her ex-husband had died in a car crash the night before, and she had come to pick up their children and take them home with her. Now her own car had broken down, and she was stuck. She tearfully begged the person on the other end of the line to wire her $40.
After she hung up, my friend, who had her own child with her, gave her $35 cash.
A little later my friend saw the woman hanging around outside the Target, talking with some other shoppers. After she moved on, my friend went over and asked the other shoppers if she had told them her story or asked for money. Oh no, they explained, she had just bummed a cigarette off them and was shooting the breeze.
| Posted at 3:39 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (2)
Yeah, I had one much like that. Middle-aged gentleman, about my age, nicely dressed but not too nicely dressed. I was in a barbecue restaurant at the time, waiting for a take-out order (nothing tastes so good as wet ribs while eating them during the premiere of the Dawn of the Dead remake), and he came up and asked me for assistance. He gave me the whole sob story: he and his wife were from Plano, north of Dallas, and he desperately needed to get his car fixed. They didn't know anybody in town, and they didn't even know where to go to get the car repaired, and could I please spare anything to help out?
I just looked at him and told him the truth: not only had I just paid for my dinner with a debit card, but I literally had no money on me. I'd even paid for my movie ticket electronically. He then thanked me, apologized for taking my time, and then walked up to the bar. He then tried this on two other customers until the bartender called the name "Jenkins". He then went to the bar, got his own take-out order, paid for it with a credit card, and strolled out. Amazing how quickly his car started up and got him out of the parking lot when I came out to ask him about this.
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | September 14, 2009 8:14 AM
I was confronted with the same sob story at the Memaloose rest stop on July 4th - car crash, husband in ambulance, abandoned children on the side of freeway, "just need $40." I was distraught "overhearing" the poor woman crying into her phone. Fortunately for me, I am a heartless conservative b*tch and didn't give her any of my hard-earned money, but I still felt absolutely lousy about the whole thing (and myself) for the remainder of my drive. Later, I decided it had to be a scam. Good to know I was right.
Posted by Molly | September 14, 2009 9:13 AM