My fiancé had his phone stolen last week. It was in one of those scams that we all think we’d be wise to, but probably wouldn’t. He’s from South Central LA – he’s been robbed at gunpoint. He just wasn’t prepared for someone to rob him with a map.
She approached in a none-too-crowded restaurant while he was sending a text, asked for directions. He set down his phone, pointed stuff out on the map she offerend, smiled, said goodbye, felt good about himself and went back to his texting. No phone. It was gone and so was the tourist-thief. He said that the worst bit of it was feeling duped and stupid: that’s the bit that I, too, can’t forgive her for.
I hate that we live in such a cynical world where it’s now justifiable to second-guess every single person who asks us for help. We’re so used to being scammed, so loath to feel like idiots when we’ve heard all the stories and should know better, that we quite rightly eye anyone who approaches us with suspicion.
It’s one thing to use violence against another person to get something they have that you want. At this stage, we all almost expect to part with our material possessions through someone else’s choice at some point. Maybe even gunpoint. That’s awful. But when they use our last shreds of decency to trap us, that’s criminal.
I hope her bloody map bursts into flames and she never finds the British Bloody Museum.
Oh.
