NEW VERSION

Evening Star, Issue 19272, 10 June 1926, Page 3

NEW VERSION

NATIVES AWRY CONFIDENCE TRICK. Remarkable ingenuity lias been displayed by native thieves who have coolly carried out a new yerlsion of the confidence trick in robbing credulous boys entering Johannesburg from the country districts. A member of the gang watches the Pass Office or railway station lor a, likely-looking boy, and succeeds in getting into conversation with him. After a while the “ new friend ” warns the country visitor to take great care of his money, and offers him a drink ol Kaffir beer.

The pair walk away to Vrededorp or Ferreira, stown, as pre-arranged, will] the other members of the gang. Suddenly two men emerge from a side street, declare themselves to bo detectives looking for gold, and arrest the bo vs.

The town boy warns bis counter friend not to resist,, and a search is made. On him the “detectives” find a tin of mod, declare it to be gold amalgam, and tell him that ho will have to be taken away to gaol. The. country native is then told that, as he is in the company of the arrested man, he will have to he searched as well. His money and valuables are taken from him as “exhibits,” and ho is released, with a warning to appear on a certain date at the “court.” The “detectives” then carry off the “arrested” man. Nothing further is heard about the whole matter, and the raw, country native eventually realises that he hns’been cleverly duped. Police action is being taken to prevent the recurrence of such frauds and to bring the culprits to justice.