Hi everyone, posting on behalf of my brother.
On Sunday night at 1am, a woman in her was 50s going down my street shining a torch on to peoples houses and ringing doorbells, whilst quietly shouting “hello?”. My cousin who lives a few doors down captured it on his Ring doorbell.
I was in the kitchen meal-prepping for the week ahead when I looked to the right and she was staring at me on my driveway looking through the window. It freaked me out but she seemed distressed so I decided to answer the door. There was certainly something a bit off about her, but I put it down to being distressed as she explained how she’d been at a friends house, got a taxi back (claimed she lived down the road), her cat was locked in the house and she had to make a hospital appointment in the morning. The £15 would get her a taxi back so she could get her keys and her friend would then give her the money for a taxi again. I offered to drive her but she declined as she didn’t want to put me out of my way. She then said she’d give me her iPad as collateral and pick it up tomorrow with my returned cash. My bullshit alarm had been going off until this point but I thought lWhy would you scam someone for £15 and lose an iPad?” I took the iPad and gave her the £15.
In hindsight, it looks even stranger. She has a phone to call a taxi, but couldn’t call her friend to collect her? Refusing a lift from me which would’ve solved her problem? Also, a double whammy sob story? My cousin then sent me a message saying he’d overheard the conversation, but when he went to check to see where she’d gone, she had completely vanished. Really creepy.
The strangest part? The iPad is completely factory reset. The iPad would’ve had very little value to me if she had left me with a locked one, but when I turned on the screen, it was on the language selection screen as if brand new.
I did call 101 and alerted them of the situation. She did not come back the next day and now I have this iPad.
What do you all make of this?
by PREDDlT0R
34 comments
She used you as a fence for a stolen iPad seen as Cash Converters doesn’t open until the morning. That is some serious commitment to picking up some smack (this is just my theory)
Junkie wanted money with a robbed I pad .
Stolen iPad, nowhere to sell directly at 1am but quick de facto cash sale to fund whatever habit needed immediate funding?
Classic addict behaviour. They will often steal very high value items like performance bikes and then sell them for £20 down the pub. You have to understand that their mindset is timply ‘next hit’ and nothing more. They would sell their grandmother if they could. This is why we have a shoplifting epedemic. IMO the solution is that if someone is a proven addict, the NHS should become the drug dealer on the condition they enroll onto a treatment plan. Even hard drugs, when taken under medical supervision, with a known quality and quanitity are reletivly safe to consume. Most of the health effects you see drug addicts suffering from are not a result of the drugs themselves, rather them forgoing food over drugs, the dodgy chemicals the drugs are cut with and not seeking healthcare when they develop infections etc.
What a nice thief, giving you a plausible sounding story to take her stolen goods.
I guess it works better than “do you want to give me 15 quid for this iPad I knicked?”
I wonder if it’s even a crime for you to hold on to it, given that you did it in good faith. Perhaps some law student can tell us.
Enjoy your stolen ipad ig? If someone declined my offer for lift I’d probably just send them on their way.
Congrats you just bought a stolen ipad and gave someone drug money.
What version of iPad was it?
Drug addicts will often sell stolen goods really cheap just to get their next fix. This could be an elaborate way to ‘sell you’ the ipad ?
Addicts will do anything for a quick hit. This is your lesson.
The test is always to offer them a non-money solution to their problem (I’ll drive you there! I’ll book an uber on my credit card) and see if they make excuses or not.
You literally did that and she failed the test.
So a thief and drug user in all possibility. But you showed some human pity on someone who for whatever reason is at a shit place in their life, so it’s not a disaster in terms of what you’ve done.
I’ll give you 30 quid for it ,that’s a good margin.
Unless you absolutely need that £15 you should have just given it to her, told her to pass the favor on to someone else in need in the future.
Did you (or rather your brother) get scammed?! Perhaps, but in some cases you just don’t know and might as well full on be a good person, and not worry about it.
That said, I personally would have closed the door (after giving her the cash, if i had any) and then called the police saying that I was worried about this older lady that seemed distressed and might be having some sort of medical episode. That she seemed confused.
It might be factory reset, but can you actually complete the setup? Or does it require you to put in the past owners email and password?
You were definitely scammed. This is one of the oldest in the book. If she was genuine she would have accepted your offer of a ride.
OP when she inevitably doesn’t come back drop the iPad at the police station and explain and hopefully it gets back to its owner, they get their iPad back, she got her smack, everybody wins.
If ANYONE knocks at my door I ignore them – let alone 1am smackheads.
This is a pretty common scam. That iPad is almost certainly stolen, and she used your good nature to turn it into quick cash for her. You basically acted as an unlicensed pawn shop for a junkie in the middle of the night.
Don’t you need AppleID credentials to perform a factory reset?
I mean.. if this was a genuinely distressed woman, she might still have to common sense not to hand over all her data on the iPad.
You sound like the type of person if somebody came up to you saying “give me £30 and I’ll tell you what colour the sky is” you’d pay it 😂😂
Im just surprised anyone had £15 cash in their house these days.
OP you’re taking some hits for being Naive. So let’s also clear something up.
What that person does with the £15 is a reflection of their character, not yours.
For a small amount of money you were willing to trust and be a good force in the world.
Stolen iPad, fenced it through you. Now she has £15 for the ole’ light and dark. Another cat fed.
You just bought an ipad from a nitty x
Yeah u get 2 items for 15.
It may have been reset but unless it’s completely brand new it may well still be associated with an iCloud account and will not pass the activation lock. It could also be bricked by Apple at any moment.
Congratualtions on opening you first branch of Crack Converters 😂
Unless I’ve ordered from Uber Eats or Deliveroo to arrive around that time, that door is not opening.
I think there needs to be some sort of scam awareness drive in the UK, it’s mind boggling how clueless people are that they just hand money over to crackheads on their doorstep at 1am.
Here’s some advice, don’t engage with shit like this, just say no, can’t help you and close the door.
Junkie with an iPad needing cash. Probably stolen or desperate for a fix and got rid of it
Druggie walk, and asking for £15 for an iPad at 1am is wild. Even for the sympathy card mentioning a hospital trip. She refused a car trip, so obviously just wanted money. A factory reset iPad is a massive red flag too.
Unless I know you, I’m not opening my door at 1am.
Some advice for the future, OP…quite often gangs will use a woman as a decoy to get someone to unlock their door, then 2 or 3 guys are hiding behind out of sight ready to barge in once you’ve opened your door.
Congratulations, you bought a stolen iPad for £15. The police will be along to collect it if they do their jobs.
Some of you are just so dumb sorry.
Why would you open the door for someone like this?? And at 01:00???
Ive got some magic beans you may be interested in
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