[Gocamino] A Camino scammer

[Grant Spangler]

A Camino scammer story as recounted in an Email from Peregrina
Stacey:

I just thought I would run this one by you to see how you want to
handle it.

I walked the Camino starting in Pamplona and ending in Fisterra.
Along the way I met some fantastic people, but a group I ended up
walking with from Astorga on and I were really screwed over by a con
artist along the way.

His name is Alejandro, and he walked with us for a couple weeks. He
told us he had walked from Belgium and that he had been walking for a
little over a year; this is about all he told us that we think is
true. The rest of the story was that he had been in a car accident
and in it lost his wife and two kids. In the end when we arrived in
Santiago all together he ended up stealing 150 Euro from me, my iPod,
and another hundred Euros from another in our group, then
disappearing. When other Pilgrims heard our story they said they had
met him as well and that he had a similar story and got 20 Euro from
them.

We should have been more careful, and I think we learned a valuable
lesson. The next day we caught up with him in the pilgrim office and
I did get my iPod back. The money wasn't an issue and I honestly
didn't care about it. Anyways, I am only afraid that he may continue
walking other routes and duping other pilgrims. Since he walked with
us for so long I have plenty of pictures of him and if you would like
I could forward some to you. I do think it may be a good idea to post
something about this on the web site because I would hate for his
scams to continue. We did do our best to spread the word on our end,
and to send Emails out etc.

Four Photos of Alejandro:

http://www.elcaminosantiago.com/Scam/Camino_Scam_Alejandro_01.jpg

http://www.elcaminosantiago.com/Scam/Camino_Scam_Alejandro_02.jpg

http://www.elcaminosantiago.com/Scam/Camino_Scam_Alejandro_03.jpg

http://www.elcaminosantiago.com/Scam/Camino_Scam_Alejandro_04.jpg

Thus, kind readers, we see there is little changed since Chaucer
penned The Canterbury Tales. Thieves and con men are still plying
their trade. The 'wolf in sheep's clothing' as exemplified by
Alejandro is as effective as ever.

Be spontaneous, live in the moment, have fun, but be watchful.

Buen Camino,

Grant

Grant Spangler
GASpangler at hotmail.com
http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago
http://community.webshots.com/user/ElCaminoSantiago