I almost became a victim
I'm just not sure of what!
My cousin Sally and her husband Warren were in for a visit. They travel in this really nice RV. (Ok, they get 8 mpg on the highway....less in the mountains.) But an RV has to be drained of waste water.
So that is how we ended up at the Petro waste dump station one afternoon.
Now I have never dumped waste at a rest stop. (Believe me, NEVER is the correct term.) So I went along to watch.
While we were dumping (sounds gross), a guy came up and started a conversation. He seemed really friendly and when Warren mentioned they were traveling with a dog, he was very interested. He said, "Follow me...you fellas won't believe this."
So we wandered into the parking area for trucks.
Semi tractor trailer trucks are big. They look huge when I am in my Honda Civic and they are six inches off my bumper, but hey are even bigger when standing by them.
So why were Warren, who used to be a deputy chief of police in Alaska, following this guy? Same reason I was.
We thought he had a neat dog to show us.
He asked us if we had a CB in the camper. Warren said no. Then the guy said something about not hearing about the Canadian trucker giving away money. Seems this guy won $189,000 and was giving it away.
We weaved in and out of the trucks until we found the guy....and a couple of other gents. They were in what might have been a room created by trailer trucks parking really close to each other. There were small openings on each end.
They said the dealer was the one giving away money....and sure enough, he had a handful of what looked like $100 bills. One of the guys gave the dealer some money, the dealer shuffled three cards, (two red and one black...or two black and one red....whatever) and the guy picked the right card. The dealer gave him a bunch of money.
"Just pick the right card and he'll give you double what you bet. It's easy, watch," one of them said. He again gave the dealer money, this time $100, and it was obvious which card was the black card among the three cards. Bingo. Guy wins, dealer gives him $200.
These guys are working the same lines on Warren on one side, and me on the other. We watch for a minute, but then the guys start shoving money in our hands and saying, "Go ahead, bet...you always win. This guy is giving away the money!"
We gave them their money and said we are out of here. One guy grabbed my arm and tried to shove the money at me again so I would make a bet. I turned, walked over to Warren, and we left.
I know: What were we thinking? Why did we follow a complete stranger to an area where we could have been beaten and robbed?
Sense of adventure, maybe? Or stupidity.
And no, we did not call the police. A marked squad would have driven them into hiding. Later in the day, much later, I did tell someone at Petro about the incident and they said they would keep an eye open for the scam....but by then I am sure they had left.
It's called three card monte....a con game similar to the old "where is the pea under the shell" game. Only these guys had upped the stakes I am sure if we had bet their $200. we would have lost and they would have demanded payment....one way or the other.
No comments:
Post a Comment