"Fleece & Release": Expensive Watch Exchanged for Fake With "Sleight-of-Desk Drawer" Trick, in Istanbul

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 10 August 2024)

    The duped seller didn't notice Mickey on the fake watch.

In Bakırköy, Istanbul, K.İ. put a watch valued at 1.4 million TL (about

$41,000) up for sale on the internet.  A potential customer responded by

telephone and invited K.İ. to come to his office in Bakırköy with the 

watch.  After chatting a bit, the two parties agreed on the sale of the 

watch.

However (!), the "buyer" said to K.İ.: "Let me go get the money. Let's

leave the watch safely in the drawer here."  It turned out, though,

that there was a trap-door in the drawer which enabled the original

watch to be exchanged with a fake. (!) 

A friend of the "buyer" took the real watch and absconded. Meanwhile,

the "buyer" told K.İ.: "there was a problem at the bank. Let's cancel the

sale."  He then took the fake watch out of the drawer and gave it to the

unsuspecting K.İ. 

Subsequently, K.İ. checked the watch and realized it was a fake.  He 

filed a complaint with the police, who took suspects B.Y., C.C., M.H.,

and Z.B. into custody, after which they were jailed. 

Henceforth, they're on prison time.