New tricks con men use to steal from you

Getting fooled can be easy, sometimes you would never suspect you are being conned.
I arrived in Eldoret very early in the morning, 6:05 am, to be exact. It was too early to go to my friend Jane’s house; she had invited me because we had not seen each other for a very long time. I alighted at the bus stop, looked at my watch and decided to grab a cup of coffee at least to warm my shivering lips as a result of the night cold; I had traveled all night from Mombasa.

I took a pavement on the shops adjacent to the Eldoret-Busia highway. Suddenly a guy jerked me from behind, picked a piece of transparent nylon paper rubbed with a band. Inside I saw notes rubbed together. The smartly dressed guy in a black suit with a red tie, put the finger on his lips, signifying to me to keep quiet. Then he slowed down, looked at me then whispered; “This is our lucky day, do not say a word, just follow me we enter into a cafeteria and share this silently.”

I ignored him, followed my path, and proceeded to my destination. Several conflicting thoughts were in my mind, some compelled me to follow the guy and others not to follow. I decided to remain calm, took out my phone, and decided to call my friend Jane. Her phone was switched off. I put it back to my leather jacket’s inner pocket and kept walking for about a minute then stopped. I decided to look around and see if that guy was somewhere; he had vanished. I stood for another minute before proceeding.

I crossed a small pathway dividing the streets and went to the other side. Getting to about a quarter distance into the pavement, a guy in front of me dropped a transparent nylon paper rubbed around a bunch of notes. It was similar to the other one, as I sunk in thoughts, standing just there looking at it, another guy surpassed me, picked it up and looked at me. I decided to keep walking; he whispered to me, “if you do not want money, I do, either you follow me, we share or just stand there and then go your way.”

I was so decisive this time around and decided to follow this gentleman. He was too smart to be a con. He was in a white long-sleeved shirt with a grey pair of trousers and a black tie. He asked me several questions, trying to be nice. I responded to them as we kept moving. I decided to head to a bus stop and board a Matatu to a destination I had decided to go to wait for Jane’s call. He insisted that we keep walking to a nearby deserted area where he would give me a cut.

Suddenly the other guy who had dropped the money came, “guys, please, I dropped some money wrapped in a piece of nylon; it is for my mother’s hospital bill. I asked some guys, and they told me you might have seen who took it.” he stated. I tensed, ‘we do not know.’ My “newly acquired” friend responded fast. We kept walking. I was no longer interested in this. I told the other guy to enjoy the money in full, I was no longer interested. “Come on, do not be a coward, just remain calm, after all, I just put the money in your bag, if this guy screams, we will be lynched, so cool down.” He stated. “What?” I exclaimed. I did not imagine being called a thief. I have never stolen anything in my entire life.

As I was deep in my thoughts imagining being called a thief, the other guy came insisting that we had his money. I was shaking out of fear. ‘Look, I do not know anything about your money; this is all I have got." I took out two notes, a two-hundred-shilling note, and a thousand-shilling note. The other guy concurred fast with me, he grabbed both notes and showed him after which he decided to escort me to a matatu.

I boarded and went to the back seat, so nervous, I have never been shaken to that extent before in my life. The matatu left, I sunk deep in thoughts, imagining through what had befallen me. “Pesa hapo nyuma!” the conductor shouted. I put my hands into my pockets to remove money for fare, and there was nothing. I checked every pocket, nothing. I recalled how I had shown the money to the other guy and how my new friend helped me do that. He had not returned my two notes, and the matatu had already left. I laughed at myself, foolish!