Dear Editor,
For a long time I have wanted a cute, good-breed little puppy that would grow up to become a good watchdog. One I could keep in the house at night that would alert us of an intruder in the yard or worse, trying to get into the house. But two obstacles stood in the way of me getting my dream puppy; a strong-minded spouse, who under no circumstances would allow an animal, be it a cat, a dog, or anything else with four legs in the house.
“Cats are troublesome creatures; they drop their fur all over the place, damage curtains and scratch up expensive furniture with their claws. A dog is even more intolerable. It would poop on the porch, the deck and, God forbid, in the house.”
“But, Love, I will do most of the work; I will pay for its food, take him for a walk every day and bathe him every other week. All you will have to do is clean the soft stuff. Be careful not to get on your fingers and be sure to wash your hands often” (Okay, I like to tease!) The second reason being I couldn’t find a puppy I could afford. I was definitely not going to pay $800 or more for one.
So, imagine my excitement one morning about a week ago when I read an important notice (classified add) in a local paper about free male and female English bulldog puppies being offered to a “very good and caring home”. The words free and bulldog jumped out at me. No phone number was mentioned in the ad, just the e-mail address of a certain Eduardo Donald.
The first thought that came to my mind was: “Too good to be true,” but neither that gut feeling nor my strong-willed spouse stopped me from hastily sending an e-mail the moment I got back home. I told Donald I was very interested in two male puppies and I would certainly provide a very good and caring home for them, and... where and when can I pick them up?
I checked my incoming emails twice a day after that. Three days later I got a response from him. He turned out to be Rev. Donald, and he even sent pictures of his two beautiful bulldog puppies, named Adam and Eve – names only a reverend would come up with – and they were indeed very cute and huggable. However, the following sentence of his email bust my bubble. He, his wife and their two darlings Adam and Eve live in ....Africa.
He was still willing to ship the puppies to me, provided I pay half of the cost of shipping them to the nearest airport. I immediately knew I was dealing with a reverent scammer, and – seeing the happy smile on my wife’s face when I mentioned Africa, I also knew those darling puppies would never poop on her kitchen floor.
Nonetheless, I decided to play along with the pastor; I sent him my name and the name of our local airport and waited. I didn’t have to wait long; the following day I got another message from the reverend. The puppies and all the required documents were ready to be shipped. He would arrange for next-day delivery, and based on my location in the Dutch Caribbean, the transportation cost would be $800. He will ship them the same day he receives the $400 from me. Needless to say, he is still waiting for my money.
At the time I wrote this letter, the classified ad was still running in the local newspaper. I doubt I am the only one who reacted to it, as I am sure there are a lot of cute-puppy lovers out there. I wonder how many of us (almost) fell for it.
It’s a shame that seers, faith healers, mediums, spiritual problem solvers and the like can deceive people from thousands of miles away. How are they even able to place newspaper ads in far-away countries? I got the answer to that question. “They all have credit cards.”
The lesson here is: Don’t be naïve; don’t believe everything you read in newspaper or magazine ads or anywhere else for that matter. There’s no way an editor can verify whether the people placing ads in his newspaper are devious or not. It’s up to the readers to judge what they read.
By the way, I e-mailed a copy of this letter to the deceitful reverend in Africa, though I’m sure that won’t stop him from doing what he’s doing.
Clive Hodge
