Welcome

Welcome to my little world! My name is Donna and I'm the mother of one very spoiled kitty named Clarice. I was a banker for over 20 years but now I'm a SAHM and loving every minute of it. I'm a super, huge Bon Jovi fan and an avid cross stitcher. I love decorating my home with flea market finds, primitive style items and vintage items. My hubby says if the last three generations threw it out as trash it'll end up in our house as a decoration.



Sunday, May 26, 2013

Nigerian Scam while riding the train

So Saturday was an unusual day while riding the city train, I was approached by a young man that made me uncomfortable.  Let's face it, I'm way past the age that 20something young men would be hitting on me so there had to be some other reason for what happened today.  Let me start from the beginning:

There was to be an antik/flomarkt  in my little town so I was excited and planning on finding lots of goodies.  I thought it was being held at the Festhalle because that was where it was held this winter.  It's about 5 blocks from our apartment so that would be a nice spring walk  but guess what,  it wasn't being held there.  Ok so now where could it be?  Oh, I bet it's being held at the fairgrounds so I'll just walk another 3 blocks to the train stop and go out there....no biggie, right?  The train arrives so I get on and in looking for a seat, I smile and say "hello" to the two young men sitting across the aisle from me.  I can't help it,  that's the polite, southern thing to do even if they don't do that here in Germany.  The train starts moving and suddenly one young guy has moved to the seats across but facing me and leaning over to speak to me.  I'm battling a bad sinus/allergy thing right now so my ears are really plugged up so I had to ask him to repeat what he just said to me several times.  Here's our exchange and you tell me what you think afterwards.....

Him:  I'm known as Sam.  What's your name?
Me:  Excuse me.....oh, my name is Donna
Him:  You are a very pretty lady
Me:  Excuse me....sorry I have a cold and can't hear really well
H: You are a very pretty lady so where are you going?
M:  Thank you and I'm not sure where exactly I am going.  I'm looking for the antik markt.
H:  You are nice
M: Oh thank you
H: Why are you here if you don't know where you are going?
M:  The fairgrounds area is where I'm going...I think
H:  How will I see you again?
M:  nervous laughter.....You won't
H:  Why not?  You are a very pretty lady and I want to see you
M:  Ummmm no, I'm married
H:  How old are you?
M:  nervous laughter again....You really shouldn't ask a lady how old she is but I'm sure I'm a lot older than you.
H: So how old and where do you live?
M: Ok 47 so see very much older than you and I live in Durlach
H:  Where in Durlach do you live?  Where is your husband? 
M: nervous laugh and looking around for someone to "save me"
H: Why are you living here and where is your husband?
M: My husband's job moved us here
H:  How many children do you have?  Does your husband allow you to see other men? How can I see you again?  I want to see you again.  Why is your husband not here with you now?  How long have you been married?  I want to ask your husband if I can see you again. 
M: Oh well, here's my stop now so goodbye. 
H: I want to see you again so how can we do that?  Hey Donna, I want to see you again.....Hey Donna, Donna????

I practically leaped off the train and into a crowd of people at the train stop which by the way wasn't the one where I intended to get off at but was the closest one.  I walked another 4 blocks to the fairgrounds but no markt.  What The Heck?  I give up so I walked back 4 blocks to catch the train to get back home and was just so creeped out replaying that conversation in my mind.  I get to my home train stop and realize that the markt was taking place in the park area across the street from our apartment.  Duh!!!!  I walked around but nothing caught my eye because the Nigerian bank scam just kept running through my mind.  I can't tell you how many times in my 25 plus years of banking that someone brought in a "fraud check" really believing they were going to collect on it.  Now I don't know if the train guy was Nigerian but his accent sounded like that and he didn't offer me riches to transact a check scam with him but he made me uncomfortable at the very least.  So what
do you guys think?

5 comments:

  1. Oh YUCK!! That gave me the heebeegeebees just reading about it! I give you credit though...you talked to him way more than I would have. I guess I'm not as nice as you (I'm not originally from the south). =)

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  2. ... that kind of event is what causes us to lose our Southern Charm! I agree, you were WAY nicer than I hope to have been, but I wasn't there facing the creep. Hate that it spoiled your day, and glad you got back home safely.

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  3. Number one, I am so glad you jumped off that train. Number two, that totally would have happened to me. Almost the same thing did years ago on a train in St. Louis. My husband says I just too nice and nieve.

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  4. That is creepy...I guess I would not have given out any information AT ALL...wow, he was persistant. You are so lucky he didn't follow you.
    But it kind of sounds like he was having fun playing that game and seeing you squirm. Crazy kicks.
    Be careful over there when you are by yourself kiddo.
    Blessings,
    Karen

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  5. What a creep! I would have been VERY nervous, indeed and you did the right thing to get off the train where there were a lot of people. Glad you're safe!

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