Recent Neighborhood Scam

Received this from a reader, detaining a recent scam taking place on the eastern side of the hood: I just wanted to let you know about this scam I've stumbled upon in CH. A few weeks ago a friend of mine was walking around Franklin & DeKalb, and from what I understand some guy bumped into him while carrying some plastic bags. After it happened he held one of the bags up to my friend, and told him that whatever liquors bottles he'd had were now broken, and that my friend needed to pay for them. He followed my friend to his door, and some awkward standoff ensued, until a more savvy stranger intervened and told the guy "accidents happen," at which point the person with the broken bottles left.

Last night, the same exact thing happened to me. I was walking on Franklin & Monroe, and a guy turned the corner sharply, bumped into my brother, and suddenly he was reaching down to open one of his bags. I waited until he shook the broken glass pieces, and I told him that nobody broke his bottles, and that someone tried this scam on a friend of mine weeks ago. He got very confrontational. Some kind of "almost-fight" happened, and he said something about how he works for a living, and how he was going to a New Years' Party (apparently on the 28th). I told him "This is ridiculous. I'm leaving." My brother paid him $2 and he walked away. Anyway, the guy is in his mid-30s, dark black, sort of thin & wiry, average height, really angular face. Hopefully the more people know about this scam, the less it will work. Oh, and we went back later to look at the "bag" he'd left on the ground, and it contained the tops to two bottles of hennessy, and the rest of the glass was literally pulverized. If anything about his story was valid, my brother would have had to've taken his bag and stomit for a few minutes for the glass to get so broken. Oh, and there was no liquid spilled on the sidewalk.

Have you encountered the glass bottle scammer?