MIGRANT ROBBED

Evening Star, Issue 20055, 21 December 1928, Page 8

MIGRANT ROBBED

SYDNEY CONFIDENCE MAK In Sydney - recently a young Englishman was accosted by a stranger with a pleasant manner, ivho asked to be directed to a certain address. “ I’m a complete stranger here,’ the man explained. u Tin from' the country. The pater has ah option over some land allotments out Oonulla'way. The option expires at 12 o’clock to-day, and I’m hero to pay a deposit'on,the investment.” . ’ They chatted together for a time, and the 1 Englishman' confessed” that he, too, was a complete stranger to Sydney, expressing regret- that ho could not be of service to his new acquaintance. At this juncture, however, the acquaintance discovered that strangely enough the office ho sought was in the building just across the roiid. Biit be was loth to say good-bye: to the,Englishman. “ WET* WON’T BE LONG.” “ Come in with me,” he said. “I. won’t bo Jong, and then wo can have some lunch together.” They went 'upstairs, found the land agent, and the stranger explained that he had come to pay la deposit on the twenty allotments over which his father Held' the option. The land agent recollected'the name without difficulty. “ But your father’s. option is over twenty-four blocks,” he said. Then the*stranger found he had only enough money, to• pay the. deposit on the twenty blocks., ■ The position was tragic. Here was a perfectly good option over. four blocks of land which in a few days would turn over an enormous profit, and at 12 o’clock the option was going to expire because the stranger did not have the money to pay the deposit. - It was top bad. The stranger .had a happy thought. “Why don’t you take those, four blocks?” he said to the Englishman. “It’s a:great;little investment.” At length the Englishman agreed and wrote out u cheque for £26, which he paid to the land agent.. AVhen he got outside, however,- he reflected that he might have been indiscreet,i especially as his acquaintance excused ■ himself and disappeared.; He had.heard of confidence tricks ■ somewhere. So he-hur-ried along-todiis bank to-stop payment on the cheque. ■ .When he got. there, he found that the cheque had already been cashed! A short time.. afterwards- lie,-.discovered that; tire; la ml agent had flown , so he communicated ■ with ‘ the.,.police., -They are still looking fpr the affable stranger and his friend : t-fie land agent. ,