The Con Don's back, but I made him scram

BEWARE, WINNIPEG -- HE'S BACK... It looks as if the Winnipeg downtown bars and restaurants aren't the only businesses enjoying the improved traffic since the Jets returned.

So is the Con Don.

My wife and I were headed to meet some people on New Year's Eve when I spotted a man walking towards us across the street from the Bay downtown. He was a burly guy, just under six feet and was holding a cellphone to his ear.

"Are you from Winnipeg?" he shouted as he approached.

"Yes," I said, wondering why he would ask. It didn't take long for me to find out. Or figure out who he was.

The guy said he was from Roblin, Man. He started to say something about his family owning a trucking company in Roblin, which if we'd been from there instead of Winnipeg, we probably would have known was a crock. Hence his first question: "Are you from Winnipeg?"

Then he said something about needing to get to Concordia Hospital.

And I stopped him right there.

"I know who you are," I said, smiling at a middle-aged man I'd never seen before but had heard about for five years.

Then I introduced myself.

And off he bolted up the street, swearing. My wife was stunned.

"Who was that?" she asked.

That, I told her, was the Con Don.

Back in 2007, I wrote a series of columns about the Con Don and his partner in petty street fraud, the Scam Ma'am.

They would say they were from out of town, their vehicle ran out of gas or broke down, and they needed money to get to a hospital where a loved one was always gravely ill. If their target had no cash, they would suggest a bank-machine location. Of course, they vowed to pay the "loan" back. And never did.

By the summer of 2007, police caught up to the Con Couple. The Don was charged with two counts of fraud and the theft of a car. I don't recall if we ever learned what happened to those charges, but the Scam Ma'am ended up being sentenced to one month on 18 counts of fraud dating back to New Year's Eve 2006. She was also given 18 months' probation and ordered to pay $500 in restitution to her victims.

And now the Con Don is back and, at least according to reports I've received since her release, so is someone who sounds like the Scam Ma'am.

The return of the Jets means that, on game nights like tonight, the downtown is thronging with potential victims. Which is why I needed to warn you, just as a victim asked me to do a couple of years ago.

"Please," the victim wrote, "remind the public that whatever story they are told -- lost their wallet, wallet was stolen, they're out of gas and their father is dying -- it's a SCAM. If any of the above happened to you or me, we would not be in a parking lot or parkade, asking a perfect stranger for money. Think about it! Don't get SCAMMED!"

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A NEW TWIST ON THE COP HELICOPTER CONTROVERSY... Former Winnipeg police chief Jack Ewatski has been Trinidad and Tobago's deputy police commissioner for well over a year now, but the political heat that greeted him on his arrival as a foreign cop for hire never seems to relent.

Last week, Ewatski found himself at the centre of a controversy over the awarding of a US$140,000 pilot project involving the police use of small, fixed-wing aircraft to fight crime on the island instead of the helicopters they've been using. In the process, an opposition politician has voiced concern about what he considers too cosy a relationship between Ewatski and the directors of the company leasing the light aircraft to police. The concern centres on Ewatski taking a flight on one of the aircraft with a company director last summer when the contract was being considered. Actually, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about, given that Ewatski is a pilot himself and the plane needed to be evaluated. What's far more intriguing about the decision is what Ewatski said in selling the light-aircraft option.

"The light aircraft will be equipped with similar technology as in the helicopters, and due to its ability to fly at a very slow speed, even compared to traditional fixed-wing aircraft, may be an alternative to helicopters, which are much more costly to maintain."

Are you listening, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Premier. Anyone for a mid-winter test flight in Trinidad?

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 7, 2012 B1