Confirmation

In an earlier post I presented the question as to whether I am an easy mark for grifters. Unfortunately, I got my answer in a way which was very disturbing to me. On Sunday my last official evening exploring Route 66 I stopped at an RV park in the Mojave desert not far from Barstow, California. After getting myself settled for the evening I decided to go and fill my gas tank so I wouldn’t have to deal with a gas station while pulling my trailer. I am getting smarter in this regard! After filling my tank I began to pull out when a car pulls up next to me with the driver looking frantic and signaling me to stop. I was taken unawares and rolled down my window to see what was up? He was speaking in broken English and said he spoke Arabic and not English well. He had with him three small children and what looked to be his wife who was in the back seat. He excitedly babbled on about being robbed and how he needed to get his children somewhere and desperately needed money for gas. Now, I was 95% certain this was a scam and did not wish to get involved. The man got out of his car and began offering me his ring, chain on his neck, telling me if I would only help I could have these things. He even reached in the window of my truck trying to get me to take them. I didn’t believe these were valuable pieces of jewelry and was getting irritated with his aggressiveness. I looked at his wife in the back seat and when I did she avoided eye contact. All I now wanted was out of this situation. I took $20 out of my wallet and handed it to the half crazed man and said keep your stuff all I can afford is $20. He persisted in trying to get me to take the jewelry and I could tell he really wanted more money and this is when I drove off. I could see as I left he moved on to the next available vehicle. When I arrived back at my trailer I looked up scams similar to this and sure enough this is a common scam being perpetrated on the I-5 Corridor in California. I was very near this location. I will tell you I was not angry about losing $20 to a bunco artist. I pretty much knew that was happening. There were many things that aggravated me about the situation however. First, the guy was invading my personal space and this is something I do not like in the least. I realize had he gotten any more aggressive in his demeanor things could have spiraled out of control. Fortunately, with age I have learned this is a weakness of mine and don’t allow myself to lose my cool. In my younger days this would have gotten ugly. Secondly, I dislike jewelry, I do not wear jewelry, I do not want jewelry. His offer of these trinkets meant nothing to me. I suppose there are many folks whose eyes get big with bling such as this but to me it was an ineffective device to get me to fork over dough. Thirdly, the thing which disgusted me the most is he was using his children as a part of this con. Where is a person's soul who does something like this? All I could think about was are these children going to continue the cycle? Are these parents raising another generation of con artists? And lastly, I am sad because this experience will only harden my resolve to ignore the next situation and I likely won’t give the next person the benefit of the doubt. But, this is the world we live in and like it or not we have to protect ourselves.

Thankfully, the entire evening was not all doom and gloom. Back at the RV park I was able to have a nice conversation with the park manager, a young single mom with twin 4 year olds . Her father owns the place and she is able to live there rent free while managing the park and going to school to get her degree. She talked for quite awhile about how she came to be here and how she came to have twins by a serviceman at a nearby Army base. I realize the boy next door face, (now old man next door) I have been blessed with not only makes me an easy mark for grifters, but also causes people to feel comfortable around me and very often I find myself in these situations of people telling me their life stories soon after meeting them. It also helps that I am very empathetic and genuinely listen to their stories. I think Christine is one of those people I will continue to think about over the years and wonder how life turned out for her? A few prayers offered on her behalf will hopefully bring good things. Overall, despite the gas station incident I am grateful I was able to stop here and listen to Christine's story and talk with her children and their friends as they were digging in the dirt. I told the kids if they found any gold nuggets I would be willing to buy them for $5 each! To which they informed me I was out of my mind because gold was worth way more than that!! Kids you have to love them!