HELPFUL people beware, there’s a new con man on the Berea and he’s looking for you.
According to Steven van der Mere, a North Beach resident who works at a medical laboratory, he was a conned while trying to help a traumatised man in a hospital parking lot on the Berea on Monday afternoon and didn’t even realise he was being conned until the next morning.
“He was a middle-aged white man in the parking lot and had a white late model KIA. He seemed visibly traumatised and tired after he was apparently hijacked and asked me to help him as he had run out of diesel and needed some cash so he could get back to the North Coast. I said I don’t have any money but would try to help and he gave me a five litre container,” van der Mere said.
Van der Mere said although he did not have money on him, he did feel obliged to help “Lionel,” who looked like a “good guy”. “He was really good, did not seem pushy and the story seemed legitimate. He actually looked exhausted from his ordeal and when I came back to him he looked like he had fallen asleep in his car. I actually ended up getting him the diesel, gave him some money for toll fees and bought him a Coke,” said Van der Mere.
The man seemed so pleasant and grateful and van der Mere believed he had really helped someone in need until he returned to the hospital the next morning and car guards asked him what story the guy had given him. “They said he parked his car in this and another hospital parking lot over the past two weeks giving people different stories. I should have asked to call a family member but I just wanted to help, maybe I’m just an easy target because I’ve contacted a number and searched the company he said he worked for and they don’t exist,” Van der Mere said.
The vehicle had an NT number plate.
