ERMELO – The public is urged to remain vigilant against strangers attempting to engage them in unusual propositions involving found money.

A local woman recently shared a disturbing encounter that occurred as she was returning to work from a nearby petrol station in Kerk Street.

She reported that another woman approached her and casually started a conversation. Moments later, a brown envelope – seemingly filled with cash – appeared on the ground in front of them.

“I initially thought a man walking ahead of us, had accidentally dropped it,” she told the newspaper.

She tried to call out to him, but the woman beside her quickly interrupted, questioning why she would do that and then suggested they split the money.

When the woman insisted that the money wasn’t theirs and attempted again to alert the man, the situation escalated.

“The other woman then warned me that the man would come to my office looking for the money. She grabbed my arm and tried to lead me down Grobler Street,” she said.

At that moment, a vigilant bystander intervened. A man working nearby had been watching the interaction and called out to the complainant, asking whether she knew the people she was with and urging her to come over to him.

Upon seeing this, the man and woman involved quickly walked away together.

The bystander later informed the newspaper that he had seen the two suspects earlier and noticed they had been dropped off by a silver Nissan parked farther down the road.

“I could tell something was off and suspected they were trying to scam people walking by,” he said.