Sunday 8 February 2009

Would you Adam and Eve it?

I've just been the victim of the best con I've seen in ages. Sitting in our school gym on Friday after school, I smiled at a woman I thought was with the visiting team. She came over and sat right next to me, which I have to admit I thought a bit odd given that I was the only parent there at the time, and there was plenty of room. She asked me to point out my son, (the tallest on the basketball team) and commented about his height etc. I asked her who was her's and she pointed to an equally tall boy, so we had a chat about how tall they were, how big their feet are etc. About two minutes into the game, she excused herself to go and get a soda, which I also thought strange.

Towards the end of the game, a mother who had come to sit behind me, handed me my bag, which she had retrieved from the floor, and jokingly told me to be careful. Given that it had started off on the seat next to me, I should have smelled a rat at that point. It wasn't till I went to give $10 to a third mother (for the coach's gift) that I saw - nothing. All my money had gone. I had been walking around with $20 all week, and didn't I go to the cash machine that day? $200, gone. And what's worse - I still didn't twig.

Everyone kept saying it would turn up at home, but I knew it wasn't possible. I did not have my bag out of my sight all day. It was driving me mad wondering how I could possible have lost all that money; it had to have been stolen but when and how?

The Ball & Chain (newly arrived back from London and therefore jet-lagged) woke up at 6am next morning and naturally, woke me up too. I immediately started thinking about the money again, and Bingo! That woman had very cleverly pushed my bag behind me as she sat down. She used great eye contact while we chatted, and of course, when she asked who my son was, I had to scan the team to find him, giving her ample time to look down and pull out the money. She never came back into the gym after getting her 'soda', and thinking about her body language, I have no doubt it was her.
The really annoying thing is that I was suspicious when I saw her, but didn't want to be rude or judgmental by moving my bag when she sat down. I am normally very good about keeping it zipped up, but that day it had my little one's gloves and hat stuffed in, so it was very easy to get at the purse/wallet.

Grrr. Oh well, I will have to worry less about offending people and keep my money at home when I get that much out at one time.

She must have thought she'd won the jackpot!!!

.

22 comments:

  1. What a horrible experience - I am sure you feel very violated - don't you hate it when you are duped when you are just being polite and nice.

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  2. Oh that makes me so mad Toni, it's a horrible thing to happen and even more so at a school sports event!!

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  3. Is the cash all she got? No wallet missing? Just worried about identity theft. It happened to me 10 years ago and it took ages to get over. I would be fuming if it were me and I'm sorry that happened to you.

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  4. good grief - what an audacious crime!! You were lucky not to have your wallet with you and all your cards gone....Lx

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  5. As my old gran used to say, 'I'd have rather given it away.' It's never the value of what's stolen, it's the fact that someone's stolen it that makes it ten times worse.

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  6. Oh the absolute toe rag! I bet you could have kicked yourself.
    Like other people said.... you would rather have lost it to a good cause.

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  7. UGH!! sorry to read this. Awful.

    BTw, read your comment of Sarah's blog:
    "chondro malatia (or however you spell it) which is basically old maid's knee and it clicks with every step"
    -AHA! That's what i have. now I have a name for it. thanks.

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  8. How awful! Must have left a nasty taste in your mouth. Hope it brings her nothing but bad luck.

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  9. Yeah, what goes round comes round. She's not going to gain anything from that in the long run.

    (PS thank you very much for your helpful comment on my blog - getting two completely different ideas of what was required is a little confusing. And thanks for the encouragement.) Gawd, we'll all be watching our bags now.

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  10. What a terrible experience....and over here! Got used to thinking 'bag safety' in the UK, but it's been easy to lapse here. The audacity of the woman though! Hope she didn't get ID too. That could mean real trouble (as if 200 bucks wasn't enough!)

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  11. Hi all. Yes, it's taken me till about half an hour ago to stop thinking about it all the time - mainly because I'm going over pretend scenes in my head about when I should've realised what she was doing etc.
    I have checked and all my cards and ID are still there. I know the last check/cheque I wrote so will ask the person if she still has it, and check the number.
    I do think however, that this person would have seen the amount of money and decided to cut and run. Why mess around with cheques when you have $200 in hand?
    And yes, living in London taught me to be very careful indeed. I have obviously dropped my guard considerably in the States. A topic for my Pond Parleys blog perhaps?

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  12. That's horrible! man, sometimes the only thing that makes you feel better is knowing that karma will catch up to her.

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  13. At least she didn't take the credit cards. I bet we see more of this during this recession/depression. You just don't expect it at a high school basketball game.

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  14. Ouch...I hate that feeling that you've been duped by somebody - it's almost worse than losing the cash itself (and thinking of the smug face of the person as they got out of there). What goes around comes around though...she'll get hers eventually.

    Don't suppose the school has closed-circuit TV??

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  15. So sorry to hear about this! What a terrible thing to do. I hope, like others, that karma catches up to her.

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  16. Ooooh. That's horrid. I'm sorry.

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  17. Poor you! Bummer. These are tough times and I have two friends locally who have been burguled. Coincidence? Maybe.

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  18. AND - then last night I was picking my son up from the orthodontist's, waiting in the car with my flashers on. Next thing I know there's a car idling just behind me. By the time I realised it was a cop and not a taxi, it was too late to flee. $60 ticket!
    Pah!
    I should just stand on the corner and hand out $20 bills. It'd be cheaper.

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  19. This might not be a good week to do the lottery. ;-)
    So sorry about the school thief - what on earth will you do if you see her again?

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  20. What a cow! It's the English in us all that stops us from being so suspicious....we are too trusting & most of all polite!

    I'm so sorry!

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  21. I agree with softinthehead, there's nothing worse than being duped when you were being polite. Losing $200 is horrible, but now you're always going to second-guess any overly chatty stranger too.

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  22. Oh, what an awful feeling! To think it was stolen in a SCHOOL gym. I don't think I would have thought twice about putting my bag down.

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