Con artists to look out for: the Hall of Shame
These are the people you don’t want to come to your garage sale, as they are con artists.
- Helpful Harry/Harriet. Helpful Harry buys several items and tries to save you the bother of tallying it all up by giving a total – which is wrong. Check everything – get out the calculator do double check if needed.
- Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo discovers this character attempting to walk out with several small but valuable items that “just happen” to have fallen into her umbrella. Real-life versions of this character have things “accidentally” slip into bags, pockets, drawers or boxes they are buying. Just check inside to be on the safe side.
- Pat the Parasite. Pat the Parasite asks for help carrying things to his/her car. Pat will return later in the day claiming that you didn’t bring everything that he/she paid for and will you hand it over now, please. Of course, this is a lie and if Pat gets away with it, they will then help themselves to something else for free.
- Ma Baker. This one doesn’t teach her four sons to handle their guns, but brings children to garage sales. She waits until you nervously distract Little Darling away from the glass figurines to make her move: switching price tags.
- Marvie the Magician. Marvie the Magician gets out a $100 bill and waves it in front of you, asking for change. He then tucks it away while you get out the change. You hand the change over, in a fluster, he hopes. He also hopes you will forget that he hasn’t actually handed the money over. Always take the money before you give the change – and have enough of a cash float to change $100 so you don’t get flustered.