It was about a month ago that our doorbell rang around 11:30 at night while we were sitting and playing Puerto Rico with some friends. When I went to the door there was a guy there with a worried look on his face.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:
He told me he had locked his keys in his car, his two kids were over at a cousin’s house (who is only 9 years old!) and that he just needed to use the phone to call his wife who worked at University Hospital to see what he should do. He lived just down the street at an address near ours and he had remembered his wife saying she knew one of the people on the corner.
I invited him in to use our phone and he called his wife. She was on a shift and couldn’t leave so they figured he should call a tow truck to come and break into his truck and get his keys. He asked me for a phone book to look up a tow truck company. Which I gave to him.
Starting to wonder…
He called and tried to see if they would come, unlock his truck and drive him to his wife at the hospital who had money to pay the $40 for the tow truck. The tow truck company, unsurprisingly, wouldn’t do it. So he said he was going to walk to the hospital (about a 25 minute walk one way) to get money from his wife and then meet the tow truck back at his place.
At this point, now 20 minutes or so since he first rang our doorbell, we were still slightly skeptical but at the same time you think that he’s gone through a lot of time/effort to try and scam us. If I had locked my keys in the car and my kid(s) were out somewhere I probably wouldn’t have my facts completely straight either.
And so he had me hooked.
You can see where this is headed. I started looking through my wallet for some money and grabbed some cash from my wife’s purse and saying that he didn’t have to walk all the way to the hospital and back – we could loan him the money and he could pay us back the next day when he got it all sorted.
He thanked us profusely… said he had just moved here from North Battleford and that they were worried about the big city and how unfriendly it could be. Said they were still driving back on Sundays to church in North Battleford because they hadn’t found anything closer. Said that we had restored his faith in people, etc.
One day goes by with no money in the mailbox. No worries.
Two days go by with no money. Hmmm…
Three days go by. I’m convinced we were had. And now, three days too late, I’m trying to remember what he looked like and figure out what numbers he actually did dial from our phone.
We’d been conned by a very convincing con man.
Just so you don’t think I’m a complete idiot, there were more minor details in his tale of woe that I’ve left out for length. And hindsight is exactly as they say it is: annoying.
We’ve since heard from two other friends who got bit by the same guy with the same basic story – only it happened to them over 3 months before he got us. So in an attempt to keep this guy from getting someone else, please spread this around Saskatoon.
We haven’t called the police yet, but we will. Obviously there’s nothing they can do but at least they’ll be aware of it. Leave a comment if you’ve been had by this guy or know of someone else who has. He’s obviously living in Saskatoon and hitting multiple houses. So far I’m aware of him working in the Caswell Hill/Mayfair areas.
All I’m hoping is that there’s some tough biker dude out there who hears about this guy and then shortly after Mr. Con Sawyer comes to Biker-Dude-With-No-Neck’s door with his sad story only to realize half way through his schpeel that Dude-With-No-Neck is on to him and is about to introduce his face to the floor.
Mmmm…. happy thoughts that help me sleep at night.
To wrap up this sad tale – it hasn’t dampened my desire to help those around me. I will continue to err on the side of naivety and give the person asking me for help the benefit of the doubt. Even if 1 out of 3 people I attempt to help don’t really need it, that’s not my concern. I believe I’m asked to just give and not to judge the poor.
But that’s just me.
7 Comments
Shoot, I wonder if this is the same guy who talked to me and my fiance on a cold street corner before Christmas: said his car ran out of gas out of the city and his wife and baby daughter were inside and the girl needed to get to the hospital. I hope it’s not the same guy… we only gave him $30 (for a jerry can supposedly) and I was pretty skeptical but he said he’d come from a reserve up north (near where I used to live actually) and his story was definitely convincing and he seemed well-mannered etc. Even after he left I was wondering if he was just a good actor, or if his girl really was expected at the hospital? We never called the hospital to check. So I could rest easier, I told myself if he was that good an actor maybe he deserved some money. Well, wonder if I can never be nice to anyone again… No wonder there are so many a-holes around – been taken advantage of much? Sorry, now I’m getting ranty.
It very likely could be. Or maybe it was legit. Either way, I still think you err on the side of being nice. Especially when it’s money at that level. But that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? It’s not quite enough money that you really question it – but it is significantly more than pocket change.
Reminds me of my experience with someone who dropped by my door in Mayfair over a year ago. I had a Christmas party to go to so I was impatient with the situation and just ended up offering him a ride to where he said he needed to go, but when he got there he had a ton of excuses as to why I needed to drop him off in a dark back alley instead of at the storefront 20 yards away which had witnesses/video surveillance (by this time I had noticed a truck had been following us since my house.) Needless to say, I refused to comply with that request and he only left when I ordered him to leave my vehicle and threatened to call the police.
Yikes! Freaky stuff.
I was thinking the same thing about this guy after the fact. What would have happened if we had just tried to give him a ride to the hospital – which our friends were offering to do?
Okay! So, on our way to a show at Galaxy (this past December) probably that same dude that JB and the original poster mentioned approached us with the same type of jerry can/wife/hospital/church story.
He was from some reserve from the north and was looking for a gas station that would sell him a jerry can. Apparently nowhere would. He said he had already come (on foot? as if) from a dozen other places, including the Flying J (out by SK Place…that one was a stretch) and had to get back to his car. But the Co-op on Broadway was too far for him to walk to, apparently. (Hmmm…)
He approached us just as two acquaintances of our had (it was pretty awkward – they didn’t know if we knew him or what the deal was) and they listened to his story and gave him $20.
The guy thanked them, said that they’d restored his faith in the ‘good people’ of the ‘big city’ of Saskatoon, then hustled on north down 2nd Ave. It was really weird.
I wonder how long that guy would have gone on for if that other couple hadn’t come up and given him that money. He gave me a weird vibe and his story was too good to be true.
Same experience just outside Sears downtown Saskatoon. Young aboriginal fella (dressed in fashionable and expensive gangster-like clothes), very friendly, stopped me and asked me if I had a jerry can. He said he was from a reserve up north, out of gas, his wife was expecting and their car was stuck on Idylwyld.
Told me that everyone he met in Saskatoon had been rude to him up until that point and that I was the friendliest person he’d come across. Said that he even offered to put up his cell phone for colateral at the gas station in order to get some gas but they refused. Asked me if I would buy his Iphone in exchange for some gas money, but I wasn’t having it.
He asked me if I had anything at all to give him, told him no, but that he might have better luck outside the food court doors of the Midtown Mall. He immediately changed his tune and stormed off. That’s when I knew he was trying to scam me.
Since then, I’ve heard of two people in my office that have been approached by this man around the Galaxy Cinemas downtown. Don’t fall for this guy, it’s all an act!
Crazy. Obviously it makes for a good story that works on people. Good on ya for standing up to the scam. It’s too bad that this is going on as the only people it’s really going to hurt are the ones who legitimately need help as now people are going to be less trusting.