I answered the door about noon on September 28^th, and a well dressed, white male asked whether this was Sunny Cove Manor. He had “been told by someone down on the beach that we might be able to help him.”

He was supposedly working for Cape Town Tourism, making a promo film for the 2010 event.  The wind, which was fierce that day, had spoiled his filming, it would take two extra days, and he wondered if we could accommodate 8 persons for two nights.  We did have space, if they would share three suites.  He asked to see the rooms, found them “perfect”, we discussed several details about rates, breakfast, secure parking, etc.

When he first arrived, he also said that the wind had whipped open a door of his van, bending it so that it was now jammed shut…. his wallet and cell phone were in the van, along with his cameras. Could he use my phone? he needed to get a lock smith. I offered to call a local one that I use, but he said his secretary would arrange it.  He made two calls, repeating the story about the wind. 

He talked again about arrangements for the guests, then called his secretary to see if she had organized things. “Would you believe,” he asked me…”the locksmith insists on a R350 call out fee.”  He “hated” to ask me, but could I front this for him, and his secretary would include that amount in her check to me for the accommodations.  I said I really had no cash in the house…he suggested I write a “cash” check.  As I started to write it, he suggested that if I would top it up to R500, he would pick up the bottled water that he had asked for for the breakfast. That would save me a trip downtown. He promised to return in an hour and a half—“I want to wait by the van until the locksmith gets there.”

The check was cashed at FNB Fish Hoek at 1:07 that afternoon,  just about the same time I began to feel there was something wrong.  I looked in the phone book for his company (All Africa Films). Not there.  I tried to call both numbers that he had left. No luck.

It is interesting that on the same day, a woman in West Lake had someone come to her door, say they needed a locksmith. They pretended to call Ian Purchase, and then told her that he wanted R600 as a call out fee…could she loan that to them until the locksmith would arrive and open their car.  She did and they disappeared.

According to Mr. Purchase, they had known that he was a locksmith, which could mean they are from this area.  Also, with me, the man had brought up the shark accident with Tanya Webb, and knew all the details about that.  So I would guess they are from this area. 

I saw only the man who came to the house, but the woman in West Lake said one man came to the house, but there was a second man by the car. The man who conned me was fairly short, slight of build, short haircut, neatly dressed.  Other than that I didn’t notice. We often get strangers wanting to see the rooms with the intention of booking accommodation, so I wasn’t suspicious.

That night I noticed that he had also taken a new watch which was sitting at the back of the desk, still in its box.

I went to the bank this morning, hoping the teller had gotten an I.D. number, but that had not happened.  I asked about the security camera and was told that if I had a case number I could see it. However, when I went back to the bank with the police number, I was told that the detective would have to “subpoena” the tape. I telephoned the Fish Hoek police with that information.

 Since I was hoping to prevent this from happening to others, I attempted to talk to the bank manager, but it was clear that his secretary knew about the incident, and said that the manager could do nothing.  She said that they would look at the tape—I pointed out that they didn’t know who they were looking for. She then repeated that there would have to be a subpoena for the tape to be viewed.

The detective assigned to the case has not yet called. Today I learned that another B&B had been targeted.

Solveig Kjeseth

021-782-2274

Saturday, October 03, 2009