Elderly couple conned by smooth-talking ‘Angelo’

A Parktown North elderly couple was scammed by a young man who approached them in their driveway in 8th Street, claiming to have run out of diesel.
Denise O’Callaghan said she was with her husband Richard while they were seeing a friend off. She said a young man then rushed down the road crying for help. He introduced himself as Angelo.
According to O’Callaghan, the man claimed that his car had run out of diesel and was stuck on Bram Fischer Drive with his sister in it. He said a security company that was passing by had given him a lift to the area.
“He claimed to live down the road at number 75 and that he walked huskies every morning,” explained Denise.
“The man said he had called his parents, who were in Swaziland at the time, but they were due back the next day.”
The 70-year-old went on to say that the man further claimed his grandmother was at their home but had no money to help him get the diesel he needed.
Following the young man’s pleas, Richard offered him a jerrycan of diesel, but before the young man went his way, he asked the couple for some money for a taxi so he could get back to his car on Bram Fischer Drive.
“He said he was forced by his sister to beg for diesel and he only agreed to it because he didn’t want his parents to find out. I said he shouldn’t have agreed,” retorted Denise.
“I began to smell a very big rat but my husband reckoned he should be a good neighbour and give him a buffalo [R100].”
The man then thanked the couple and promised to bring them a cake the next morning since he was a baker.
“I went to house number 75 to check if they got home safely and, guess what? No one by the name of Angelo lives there, neither does a granny, nor two huskies. So, be on the lookout for a young, well-spoken conman with a really good story and probably carrying an empty yellow jerrycan,” she concluded.