I had a mini-adventure on the way back from collecting the new lens for the CC3.
Man in a Mercedes flagged me down as I passed him in a lay-by.
The bonnet was up, and not being in any rush, I decided to stop.
I stayed in the car, and invited him to approach the nearside window, which he did.
He told me he was Yugoslavian - a country I thought no longer existed - and in broken English told me he had run out of fuel and money.
He was a bit agitated, kept calling me 'super boss', while pleading with me to help him.
I judged his story to be genuine, albeit his problems were entirely of his own making.
He removed a gold ring and chain and plonked them both on the front seat of my car as security for the loan he was hoping I was about to advance.
I did not find this proposal attractive, I was willing to help, but did not wish to get involved.
The loan, he then tells me, should be for £100.
No chance, his gold might be worth £1,000, it might be worth nothing.
Either way, I don't want it.
I decided to give him £5 - enough money for a drop of fuel.
I also decided I would offer no further assistance.
Things took an almost Monty Python turn when he looked a bit askance at my gift, but he recovered his composure, thanked me and walked back to his car.
Any comments on how I handled the situation?
What would you done?
Or what have you done in similar circumstances?
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He had a result, didn't he! Always ask for more than you want, appear disappointed when you get less and then go on to do the same again with the next person that stops.
£5 in - how long - about 5 minutes? Beats working for a living!
I posted a couple of years ago on another forum, that I had been approached by a person in a filling station. He claimed to have run out of money and wanted to leave his wife's rings as security for a loan. I declined to assist.
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Duncan,
That's a perfectly reasonable reading of the situation.
I tend to think it's incorrect, but that's the skill of the conman, isn't it?
The conned - me - doesn't realise he's been done.
Still say it doesn't apply in this case, though. :)
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I'd have told him to use his mobile I could see he had to phone a friend and driven off.
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I wouldn't have stopped. Under those circumstances there was a good chance that he was a crook, and you never know how many of his gang might have been hiding behind a hedge. What you described is a common way of getting you out of your car so that he/they can steal your car.
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...What you described is a common way of getting you out of your car so that he/they can steal your car...
Les,
Fully accept that, which is why I pulled in a good few yards in front of his car, stayed in mine, locked both doors, and kept my eyes on my mirrors.
Having said all that, had three or four beefy blokes got to my car before I'd pulled away, there would have only been one result - I'd have been getting the bus home. :)
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>> Having said all that had three or four beefy blokes got to my car before
>> I'd pulled away there would have only been one result - I'd have been getting
>> the bus home. :)
Probably with glass in your eyes from when they smashed the window to get at you, or with other injuries purposely inflicted on you. They wouldn't just have said "Please may we have your car".
I wouldn't pick up a hitch-hiker now, like I would have done 50 years ago.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Tue 16 Mar 10 at 07:47
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I think you made a good judgement there IIH, it was sort of halfway between a lot of compassion and the automatic distrust we have in everyone today.
Well Done:)
I too get conned, I used to stay overnight quite a lot at the BP garage on the A14 at Kettering and a lad of about 18 walked up to the cab one summers evening with the odd scratch and scrape still bleeding a little with a tale of having had an accident down the road and needing money to get home. I gave him a little but then found out from the staff the following morning that he injurs himself and does this at least a couple of nights a week!
Which reminds me of another occasion when we were going to Huntingdon one cold winters day last year and passed the resident tramp who lives along there somewhere.
We both felt so sorry for him and when we'd been to Staples we bought him a bacon and egg roll and a cup of tea to give him on the way home.
We found him sitting on the side of the road and Mr pda jumped out and gave him his dinner. He didn't say much but we though he might have been a bit 'underwhelmed'.
Two miles up the road, we passed our tramp still plodding on and realised it was an intrepid rambler we'd given the breakfast to:)
I do mean well, though!
Pat
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L'Es - and what if it had been a pretty damsel in distress? Do you always walk on by? I think I would have done similar to ifithelps - except I probably wouldn't have thought to lock my car first! I wouldn't have fallen for the gold trick either. I rarely carry that sort of amount in cash anyway.
My most gullible moment recently was at my front door. Some bloke selling a "cheap" service and MOT package from the local Mitsubishi dealer. The package was certainly attractive, but I first went through checking his credentials. When I was dubious he offered me the phone number of the local plod to check him, which I did. It didn't occur to me until SWMBO got in that it could have been any old number with a recorded background. (It was, however, genuine). (Oh, and the package wasn't as cheap as it looked as it didn't include parts - so a cheap headline cost.)
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>> L'Es - and what if it had been a pretty damsel in distress?
I wouldn't be surprised if car theft gangs didn't use pretty damsels as an enticement for you to stop.
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Nor me, but it's a shame that a people aren't prepared to get involved these days - in all kinds of things. Can't say I don't understand but it's still a shame for society.
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Pat and Smokie,
Thanks for the words of support.
I think I struck a good balance between personal safety and offering a hand to my fellow man, while at the same time not losing anything I can't afford - £5.
I'm not the most compassionate person, but at the back of my mind, I think I might be glad one day if someone pulled over to help me.
This exercise is a little unfair on forum members because I have a lot more information to make a judgment on than I can put in the OP.
For example, the car was parked off a national speed limit rural A-road where a lot of drivers do the national speed limit.
It's not a place I would pick to stop if I wanted to entrap an unwary passer-by.
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I'd say you have a 'kind' face IIH, something i apparently possess instead of a handsome visage (not to say you don't possess both), so i tend to attract such stories meself, with the great benefit of hindsight should you have stopped?, probably not but it's a pity to have to become someone you're not because of low life's and pass the one really in need of a helping hand.
You'll never know if the bloke was genuine or not, my MB indy sometimes gets these foreign chaps turn up at his place wiith various things going wrong, the last one he told me about was a 210 (they always have those) where a spring cup had parted company from whatever....he bodged it quickly for them with an old prop shaft doughnut which apparently fits a treat and they quickly vanished...without paying him a penny which is the usual form.
They've never got any money or don't intend to part with it but they're often in MB's.
Damsels in distress...hmm thats a tricky one and i admit i'll go by appearance and attitude/manners, trouble is you don't discover the real person till you've communicated.
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It sounds like you handled it with aplomb IIH - as others have pointed out, it could have been a much more serious encounter averted. I would have been tempted to report this to the BiB also - you never know what level of desperation those types might be driven by, or, what level of threat their opportunistic nature might pose to others less able to 'negotiate' situations like this.
The overall effect though is to further erode our willingness to help others in need - which is a shame & loss to us all.
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I had a sort of similar experience once when driving through Portugal in a little Citroen AX diesel by myself.
I was heading north for Santender in Espana por favor and I was driving through Coimbra where I stopped and asked a local for directions to Douro (pointing to my map)
It was in August about say 1994/5 and it was hot (and some!) so I had all my windows open.
Ah! Britannicas, britannicas he said, and he wanted to get in my car and come with me part of the way to show me the correct road but, I caught a glimpse of his beedie eyes eying up all my worldly goods in the back of the car so as he pulled his head out of my window and went to open the passenger door, I put the pedal to the metal and flew orf!
I've always thought back to that Saturday morning though, and wondered what would have been the outcome - if I'd let him in?
I think I did the right thing ifih - like you did.
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It does sound like an attempt to get £100 out of a helpful person to me. But leaving a £5 should have helped them if genuine. Why £100 if only out of fuel.
I also think you were wise not to get out of the car. There could have been more of them in the back of the van.
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>> my MB indy >> ..........................
>> They've never got any money or don't intend to part with it but they're often
>> in MB's.
>>
If you will forgive me saying so, but that follows, doesn't it?
At an MB specialist people will tend to turn up in MBs.
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>> At an MB specialist people will tend to turn up in MBs.
>>
Should have writ that in red pen with 'See Me' scrawled ominously at the bottom.
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I am fortunate enough to be able to speak the most commonly spoken language of the former Yugoslavia, so could have addressed him in that language to see if that part of his story was a fib. If it was a porkie, then away I'd go. As the OP pointed out, Yugoslavia ceased to exist a few years ago, however he may have been from a part of the old country which he deemed to be little known in the UK, and may have thought the old name would sound more familiar to someone in the UK. Perhaps he was from Kosovo and thought that the mention of that territory would conjure images of Albanian bandits and paramilitaries in the mind of his interlocutor. But the OP is right to think it odd, and I'm not surprised this caused concern. Or perhaps the chap in distress thought that mentioning Yugoslavia may cause the OP to feel sorry for him, visions of war and refugees and all that.
Even if it wasn't a fib, I don't think I'd have judged a request for 100 pounds to be reasonable to enable him to buy some emergency fuel to get him to a place where he could obtain his own funds or shelter.
If I had adjudged his story genuine, I would have perhaps given him 20 pounds, as most Mercs won't go very far on much less, and he may have needed to purchase a jerry can also.
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A slight variation on the "con" is that you unwisely give some nubile girl in distress a lift and once she is in your car she demands cash and says that you you don't cough up she will call the police and/or file a complaint to the effect that you molested her!
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So did you make sure you got your money's worth? :-)
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>> He told me he was Yugoslavian - a country I thought no longer existed -
>> and in broken English told me he had run out of fuel and money.
>>
A friend in the force tells me that the "run out of fuel lend me some money " story is a very common scam on British roads.
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In London it's "Will you give me £3 for a bus fare please?" Twice a week, I should think, I get that.
Walking down Marylebone High Street (swanky yummy mummy territory in London W1) the other week, I espied a penny in the gutter, so stopped to collect it. In fact, there were three of them. Delighted with my lucky find, I stood up to see a tramp offering me a Big Issue. If he cannot be bothered to collect the free money that sits before him...
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Any sensible person will always carry following items
A mobile phone (battery may be depleted)
A wallet with some cash (£10 may be) with debit and/or credit card
An identity card (driving license, work id card or something similar)
>> pretty damsel in distress?
A usual con trick (happened to me). Walking towards my car in supermarket at late night.
A lady shouts "excuse me...", I paused.
"Could you please help me? I ran out of money and fuel. I need to pick my daughter from (somewhere forgotten now). Can you give me just £2?"
I politely said I didn't have any change and advised she rather walk to clerk over fuel counter, explain her problem and buy £2 fuel in credit showing her id.
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Been buttonholed in the past in the street - I usually claim I have no money a slightly dishevelled look and a copy of last month's Big Issue are my props/
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ifithelps, I believe that you handled this precisely correctly, though I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have stopped.
About a decade ago, I was in Romania, driving my own car. There was a guy who cruised around the main roads in the border area in a German registered Audi, and tried to flag down anyone with a western European (or any foreign?) registered car. I never stopped, but eventually I met him at a filling station. The driver approached me and told me some story about the fact that he needed fuel, but he didn't have anything smaller than a 100DM note. (Or it could have been 100 Euros) Could I change his note? I declined.
I was later told what I already suspected - that the notes were forged.
My story bears an uncanny similarity to yours: Eastern European provenance, a hard luck story, and an offer of an apparently valuable asset in exchange for your cash.
Of course I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like a scam.
Last edited by: tyro on Thu 18 Mar 10 at 14:06
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Two (true) experiences:
1) I was once waiting at Liverpool Street station when a young chap approached me and asked if I would lend him a fiver. He said he was a Cambridge undergraduate who had run out of money and he had approached me because I looked of the same ilk.
I don't know how he knew, but I gave him the money and my address. 2 days later there arrived a postal order and a thank you.
2) Someone called at our house and said he had walked up the hill, his car was at the bottom and had run out of petrol. I gave him a full can and said he could drop it by next time he was passing. A week later, the can appeared on my doorstep, refilled.
You have to go with your instinct. Sometimes you get it wrong, but if you don't, then you miss out on those lovely moments that make life worth living, namely the pleasure of doing a good turn with no thought of reward.
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...You have to go with your instinct...
That's right.
Within a few seconds of speaking to 'my' man, I didn't exactly wish I had not stopped, but I knew there was no way I was going to get out of my car.
I'm now coming round to the view this was a scam.
Still, no real harm done.
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Good call iffy. I subscribe to the gut instinct thing although I have, when I was a rep, been conned out of £5 a couple of times by a plausible story at a motorway services. It's Karmic anyway; one gives, one gets given, but not necessarily from the same source.
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Life has changed now. I would never stop unless I knew the person or knew their face from our town, OR there was a serious accident when I would position my vehicle to make safe the scene from one direction, leave the vehicle to offer whatever assistance was appropriate ensuring that I locked it upon leaving and kept the key in the front pocket adjacent to the 'Old Chap'. Cynical perhaps, but I'm usually right. I am old enough now to have heard most of the carp that these 'players' espouse and to be fair, life has become so cheap I don't wish to be a victim. I am 52 and to date have never run from anything. Now I am slowly beginning to think that in a few more years I will be so vulnerable to the acts of the Feral underclass that it concerns me more each day.
Still, three square meals, TV etc., can't be too bad and apparently you can have drugs too. Knowing my ruddy luck it won't include Best Bitter.
Cynically yours................MD
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...He said he was a Cambridge undergraduate who had run out of money and he had approached me because I looked of the same ilk...
This enables me to rehash an old saying aimed at puncturing the know-all pomposity of some Oxbridge graduates.
"You can tell a Cambridge man anywhere, but you cannot tell him very much."
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>>> Cynically yours................MD <<<
You are a survivor Sir, and you speak a lorra sense = commonsense!
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Lorra Lorra, our Cilla 'ere.
Thanks P.
M
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Joining the M8 at Junction 6 this morning, there was a gentleman standing next to an old style white Mercedes Estate trying to flag every passing vehicle down.
I am convinced that this was a similar scam to this, in fact I was very nearly tempted to stop to see if it was but in the end I just drove on as I know that there is a petrol station only 200 yards from where he was if he really did need help.
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It would have been tempting for me to stop and ask for my fiver back. :)
If you'd asked me before, I'd have said my man had an old Merc saloon, but it could have been an estate.
It's not too far fetched to suggest it could be the same man, you'd have to carry out the scam a few times a day to make it pay.
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>> It's not too far fetched to suggest it could be the same man you'd have
>> to carry out the scam a few times a day to make it pay.
>>
I am told that another version of this scam is popular in the motorway service areas in the Midlands. A man with a child in his car says he has been visiting his wife in a hospital in London and has left behind his house keys and his wallet by her bedside. He needs to go back but does not have enough fuel and asks for some cash and a couple of quid to pay for his childs meal.
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Known scam.
There's a fellow that does the rounds of a wealthy North London Borough knocking on doors saying he's just heard his mother has been taken ill/died and needs money to travel....surprising how much money he gets....the odd arrest for deception doesn't seem to slow him down much either.
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On a slightly higher level, I was approached in the street twice in about three years in my old West London manor by the same foreign-seeming guy saying he was lost on the way back to Heathrow, which way was it? Then he would say he was in the designer schmutter business out of Milan and disclose a bootful of assorted fake-badged flash gear. I bought a whistle off him for fifty quid the first time - he wanted 100 but that was what I had, and it had very impressively adjustable trousers. Didn't last long and was a bad buy. When I recognised him the second time and reminded him of the first, he was very put out and inclined to deny it, the twerp.
How I do relish the human comedy though.
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Flagged down - what would you have done? - Duncan
