A Con-Man With No Sole
Some women might do anything for a new pair of shoes.
Ventura, California - A fast-talking con man has duped 40 women into cutting up their shoes by promising them expensive new ones.
“The guy really had a gift for gab. He charmed them right out of their shoes - and he did it over the phone,” said a police investigator.
A man, posing as a shoe salesmen, has called dozens of unsuspecting women in the area with a bizarre offer.
He promises to send them new pairs of shoes, as many as 50 pair over a period of one year, if they cut up the shoes they are wearing while he listens over the phone.
According to police records, over two-dozen women have come forward, admitted to destroying their own shoes and waited for new ones to arrive.
However, no new shoes were ever received. And when the women got tired of waiting, they called a number the man had given them.
But instead of a shoe company, the women reached a company that manufactures aircraft toilets, which didn’t know anything about the supposed offer.
“This one is a little bizarre,” said a police spokesman. “Whether this is somebody’s idea of a practical joke, or someone with an uncontrollable fetish, they will be caught and prosecuted.”
Two of the victims claim to have actually seen the man.
One woman met the man outside a health club where he gave her a new pair of tennis shoes, after she first cut up her old ones.
Another woman said she was approached by a stranger who offered her $50 for the shoes she was wearing, but she turned him down.
Both women described the man as being in his 50s, white, approx. 5-feet 10-inches tall with graying hair.
The man is also said to be overweight, enough so that his size makes walking difficult for him. - Stanley Wade
Source - http://www.latimes.com/
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