IT seems a con artist is back on the streets with his old tricks, conning people by asking for petrol money.
Mariaan Potgieter learned the hard way when she gave the man R500 after he approached her in Van Riebeeck Road, on Tuesday afternoon, just before 5pm.
She said he was well dressed, well mannered and clean.
“He asked me for a lift to the garage as he was stranded without petrol. I had never done anything like this before but thought he looked okay. He told me he was not a crook and had his wife and kids in the car,” Potgieter said.
“I gave him a lift, and on the way to the petrol station he asked if I could help him with money for petrol as he had to go to Louis Trichardt, to a farm called Mooi Plaas.
“He gave me all his details – actually his parents’ details. I stopped at the garage and withdrew R500. It bothered me, so I phoned the number he’d given me the next day.
“He did not answer, so I phoned the other number. It was his dad’s number.”
Potgieter said the dad told her he received many calls from various people and did not know what to do anymore. They are pensioners.
“I said I wasn’t worried about being paid back, I just wanted to know if he was safely at home. He then said his son was on drugs and he was very sorry for what he had done.”
She warns other Kemptonians not to fall for the same trick.
