When you talk about con people, many usually think of a well-dressed smooth-talker. But a grandmother in her 60s in Nakuru recently pulled a fast one on someone and vanished into thin air.
The elderly resident of a Bahati district village in Nakuru County confided in her next door neighbour that she intended to sell part of her one-acre piece of land. The neighbour, a stone mason in his 50s, decided to act as a broker and asked for five per cent commission.
The granny reasoned that parting with an eighth of an acre wouldn’t deprive her children and grandchildren of an inheritance.
She had been known as a pious church member who wore a long headscarf and donned dresses covering her from her neck all the way to her ankles, according to her church’s dictates. She passed as a very trustworthy person with a moving testimony to boot.
The broker advertised a plot for sale through word-of-mouth. He was connected to a potential buyer who in turn he took to the elderly woman.
Negotiations started.
The lady wanted Sh500,000, but the buyer was willing to pay only Sh350,000. Their talks hit a deadlock. After further negotiations, the price came to Sh400,000.
The method of payment would be cash in installments, with the broker acting as the witness.
The lady asked the buyer to first pay Sh50,000, which would be used for title deed processing and meeting other “administrative costs”. He gave her the money, promising to follow up on the progress at an agreed date.
But members of the lady’s family residing in Njoro heard about the transaction. Believing she was losing her marbles, they paid her an impromptu visit.
It emerged that the land belonged to her deceased son and she was holding it in trust of the two grandchildren she had been living with who are in their teens.
The ashamed cucu, who had given the broker part of his commission, couldn’t raise the refund. Her family members wouldn’t be drawn into her ‘wanton’ financial greed and refused to help.
Rather than wait to be confronted by the duped buyer, she packed up and went underground.
The stone mason is now playing the innocent victim of her manipulation.
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