CITY FIRMS HOAXED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28801, 23 January 1959, Page 8

CITY FIRMS HOAXED

False Orders Telephoned

Two residents of Cranford street, St. Albans, were the victims of an unusual hoax yesterday. Washing machines which had not been ordered arrived at their homes, sent by two city firms in response to orders telephoned to them by a woman early yesterday afternoon. In one instance, the mysterious woman asked the firm to be sure to send the washing machine up by 4 p.m., and gave a fictitious name, Johnson, at the address the machine was to be sent to. The firm accordingly sent a washing machine just before 4 p.m. The salesman found that nobody called Johnson lived at the address, and the machine had not been ordered by the couple living there. The other firm also sent a washing machine to a Cranford street address about 4 p.m.» but in this csise the correct name of the occupier of the property had been given by the woman who telephoned the firm. “It seems that some practical joker has been at work,” said a spokesman for one of the firms last evening. He said that his firm had never before had such a thing happen, and an endeavour would be made to trace the woman who had placed the fictitious order.

No other complaints of similar hoaxes had been reported to the police last evening.