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There I was, foot flat on the gas, enjoying the lovely sunny afternoon on the A4/E40 stretch. It must have been about 40/50 km before Wroc³aw, when suddenly a rather shubbily dressed bloke in a sleek C320 Mercedes (with tinted rear windows) flagged me quite desperately. I thought i had been nicked for speeding, so foot off the gas and pulled over on the hard shoulder. The missus immediately demanded for an answer as to why i had pulled over, I think it's the Police, i answered. Her next 5 words were sandwiched with 3 k****as (She's a very nervous woman!). Anyhow, here's the guy's story - he introduced himself as Mustafa, a Turkish-German businessman who is in the Exports and Imports car industry dealing mainly in German cars (amateurish business card in hand). Apparently he had run out of petrol, lost all his credit cards and being a Sunday, his offices in Berlin were closed, so he couldn't get any immediate help. I then signals to his car and all hell broke loose. A woman with a kid (the bait) jumped out of the car and started being too dramatic, shouting and arguing in Kurdish. My wife, was now getting sucked into the con, she started feeling sorry for the woman and the kid, obviously putting herself in their shoes....'Be cool woman, this is a con' i said to her. Then, Mr Mustafa turns back to us with 3 big FAKE gold coated rings and he said, Listen, i have these 3 carat gold rings, i can give them to you as bond, just give me any money you've got, there's my details, i'll give your money back in exchange for my rings! That was it, i had had enough, i detaste people who insult my intelligence plus the missus was becoming hyptonised by the whole episode. I told him to f off to the cash converters.
And guess what, 20km down the road, yes u guessed it - another flag. This time a black A8 audi (where do they get these cars from?!). I gave him the meanest of looks accompanied by a 'nice' hand gesture! So i asked myself, why us?! there's hundreds of cars on the road...and the missus wisely pointed out that we were marked because we had a foreign car with GB license plates. Is this some kind of organised criminal gang? Are the Woman and kid part of the scam or forced to do it? Has it happened to anyone before?, i'm keen to hear your story.
A trick as old as the hills.
The first time I encountered such a con act was in mid 1995. Next, a few more. Always the same scenario - apparently broken car on the side of the road, and a dark skinned man offering mock gold.
The guys aren`t Turkish, they are mostly gypsies, I suppose.
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