L Pretorius, Simon's Town.
Thank you for publishing Penelope Green’s letter ("Nearly taken for a sucker,“ Echo, February 8). I had a similar experience but with a difference.
In January, Carl/Karl, the painter, accosted me in Checkers, at the Sun Valley Mall. He insisted he had done painting work for me before and gave a sob story with many of the elements already mentioned. Didn’t I recognise him?
His story included details of children going to school without breakfast and how he needed R750 to reconnect his water after the City had cut it off for non-payment of rates. My heart melted, and I immediately gave him R50.
I had been really sick and didn’t realise that the resulting weakness was interfering with my usually good judgement.
I showed Carl/Karl some things that needed doing, and he gave me a quote that didn’t include materials, which I had to buy at the hardware store.
Here I made my second mistake. I provisionally agreed to this, and he said he needed a deposit on this quote. I arranged for an EFT to be made to his account. (My soggy heart had made my usually hard head soggy too.)
A deposit on a quote is supposed to cover costs of materials to be bought by the worker. Not the labour.
I checked with my neighbour who said this quote was “a bit high” and suggested someone else who confirmed that. Now I had to do damage control.
When he arrived with some tools to start work, I was wary and had him repair only the cracks in the garage wall “for a start”.
He realised he’d overplayed his hand, but his smooth talk and insistence on his own way angered me.
I told him that sudden bad news prevented me from proceeding with further repairs until I phoned him after a month or two. He insisted on leaving his tin of a few tools in my garage.
Thanks for the warning. Carl/Karl the painter may have legitimate problems (who doesn’t?), but I’ve learned an expensive lesson.
R Lambrick, Fish Hoek.
When I read last week’s letter from Penelope Green, I nearly fell on my back.
She stated that while she was in Shoprite, a fellow called Carl had asked her for a large pack of chicken pieces so that he could make curry for his mother’s funeral. He had made out that he knew her previously, but she could not remember this.
He picks on old folk who may have poor memories. Lucky for her, she did not fall for his stories to elicit sympathy (as I had in April 2023).
He came to me with the same story, only this time he wanted to make potjiekos for his mother’s funeral.
He asked me to advance him R300 for this and said he had a big contract coming off, but he needed the money now so I asked why he didn't get it from the contractor, but he said he was in Johannesburg and was only coming down in a few days’ time. (He always has the answer lined up.)
Well gullible me lent him the R300. The next day, he then needed petrol money to take his funeral guests back to Stellenbosch. I now can’t believe how gullible I was and lent him another R200.
He had given me his bank card as security until he could get the "promised" advance from his contractor, but when the time came and we went to his bank, the money had not yet come through. His response was that it took time from one bank to another. He always had a reasonable sounding excuse, and he had his card back.
Needless to say, I never got anything back.
I went to his bank to get his address, but they said SAPS would have to give permission.
I then went to Fish Hoek SAPS to lay a charge of fraud, but they said it was a contract and I would have to sue him in a civil court, and they also refused permission for me to get his address.
• Fish Hoek police spokesman Warrant Officer Peter Middleton responds: In some incidents, cases of fraud can be opened if the person intentionally, and it can be proven intentionally, has taken money with the intention not to work. With regards to borrowing money, you have to be able to prove that they had no intention of giving it back. Where he's claiming to do work, takes money for it, and doesn't do the work, it's advised that the person come and speak to the detectives to ascertain if there are merits in opening a fraud case. We recommend people go to a civil court because there you can have them held liable for not doing it and they have to pay the money back.