Mariam Adams and her husband George Adams will know better in the future than to trust strangers, no matter how might be, or how presentable they might look. “People need to trust their instincts, to be aware,” Mariam Adams said
Mariam Adams and her husband George Adams will know better in the future than to trust strangers, no matter how might be, or how presentable they might look.
“People need to trust their instincts, to be aware,” Mariam Adams said in retrospect.
An experience last week cost them about $190, some stolen tools, and some anxious moments.
Last Tuesday, George Adams was in the parking lot of the Safeway market in the Kaua‘i Village shopping center when he was approached by what his wife described as a “husky” man and a woman.
She said the man told her husband that he could repair some minor body work on the elder man’s car, and that he would do it on the spot.
George Adams told them he would have to ask his wife, so the couple followed him in their car the short distance to his home.
“It’s like they are targeting a certain type of person,” Mariam Adams said.
Once they got to the house, Mariam Adams said the couple who said they were from Honolulu and driving what Adams believed to be a rental car, looked decent and respectable, so she gave her OK to fix the car for $210.
It soon became obvious to Adams that the worker, who later identified himself as Thomas Lee, was not only doing a poor job of fixing her car (haphazardly applying spray paint), but was also in the process of stealing tools, something she found out later, which prompted her to call officers at the Kaua‘i Police Department.
She said the man grew defensive when she asked him for a receipt, and demanded payment in cash, something he had not made clear at the outset.
“I thought, ‘why do they want cash?’ and ‘why are they doing car repairs while they are on vacation?'” Adams wondered, adding that no one would be foolish enough to allow someone to follow them to the bank.
“What if he had a gun?” she wondered.
When she found she did not have quite enough cash on hand, she offered to pay the remaining $20 with a check. But Adams said the man said it had to be cash, and he would follow her to the bank.
Adams said “no.” She said the man also misled her about the cost of some other parts he said were needed. The man said he would return later in the day to finish the job and come for the remaining money, but he never returned.
Adams said that when the police arrived, they were able to give them the license-plate number of the car, but were told it was highly unlikely the alleged scam artist would be apprehended.
As part of this cautionary tale, Mariam Adams said a friend of hers said this had also happened to her several years ago in Honolulu.
