“SNIDE OPERATORS”.

These types are everywhere, people are conned by them to part with their money. Miron likes to tell a story of a true incident and how he overcame them without spending any money at all. He once bought a photocopier and put a sign out reading: “INDEPENDENT COPYSHOP”. It was to advertise himself, he typed what he wanted and printed it out in the size of an average businesscard, then went out in the evening with bundles of them on a letterbox drop to tell people where he was and his prices.

Next day, Miron got a phone call of some con artist who said he was a licensed printer and going by the name Peter, he, the caller offered to print businesscards for several hundred dollars and made the mistake by giving his house address. Miron was to pay him cash before he gets the finished product. He refused, telling him he was quite capable of printing his own and put the phone down on him.

A week went past before Miron heard from him again, this time he said he was Yeronga Lawn Mowing Company and wanted Miron to print panpflets for him to advertise the business. The only thing was, Miron knew there was Yeronga Mower Company because he had business with them before and knew the owner of it. The owner of the company is an elderly man but the voice on the phone was from a young man.

Miron thought at first the company to genuinely want to give him business by ordering five thousand leaflets and giving him size specifications with their address and price, so he rang a stationer where he bought the copier from and asked for copy paper which was delivered to him. Miron typed couple of leaflets out and decided to ring the company up because the caller said to have them courier delivered and Miron would be paid Cash on delivery which made him doubt the person somewhat because Yeronga Mower Company doesn’t do that.

Miron checked the telephone book, there was no such place as Yeronga Lawn Mowing Company, the address given him over the phone was a fictional one, the phone number was of Yeronga Mower Company. Miron phoned the company, the elderly gentleman who own it denied ordering leaflets, he told Miron he never had any intention of having leaflets printed and he had no young man working for him.

He knew the address that was given Miron though, it was an abandoned house half falling down couple of blocks down the road from the shop and was overgrown with grass. Peter had a tiff against the business owner to get leaflets printed and force him to pay for them. When Miron asked if he knew Peter, the owner of the business told him he sacked Peter six months before for stealing money from the cash register.

Miron didn’t go ahead with the printing but rang the police. The Sergeant refused to do anything because he was a criminal sympathizer and just laughed at Miron over the phone. That evening, Miron went for a walk and put a note in Peter’s letter box telling him there’s no such place as Yeronga Lawn Mowing Company, leaflets will not be printed, the matter is with the police and if he rings again he will be dealt with by law. Miron never heard from Peter again.