ALBERTON – A 69-YEAR-OLD woman who asked to remain anonymous was conned out of R4 200 by a group of young men at Alberton Clinton Road on the morning of Saturday March 8.
She said she had been saving the money in R200 notes from her pension and salary so that she could visit a dentist. Now she will have to start all over again and she can never trust anybody.
The elderly woman was forced to walk over 14km in rainy weather from Alberton to Eden Park, because the men who conned her had taken all her money.
“A young man approached me to offer me one of these paper notes people hand over in the streets. He caught me by surprise and started to shove that note in my bag. Suddenly he marked me with something colourful and ran away.
“I was shocked, but I just continued to walk the road. Another guy showed up and told me he is Muthi, my money will disappear. He said he had once been a victim of that kind of scam.
“At the time I wasn’t thinking straight, I just trusted him. The guy continued to walk with me, telling me about his experience till we saw a navy blue car on the road. He told me I am lucky because they were policemen.
“In my head I thought he was trying to help me, I trusted easily. In the car there were guys who produced documents that they were police officers. But because I am old I no longer see properly, I was convinced they were legit.
“They started driving and along the road the guy who marked me approached the car and got inside. I told them this is the guy and they said: ‘Relax, we are taking him to the police station.’
“Then one of them asked to see inside my bag if the guy had put muthi there for real. He looked and then handed the bag back to me and said everything is still in place.
“They dropped me next to McDonald Drive at Ring Road West and told me they will handle the situation,” the woman remembered sadly.
She said she could not eat or function properly for a number of days after she realised that her money had been taken from her purse. She believes they could have followed her from the mall, where she drew the money.
A case was opened at the Alberton Police. The woman, who lives with her young grandchildren, hopes the police can identify the conmen on surveillance camera.
