A cautionary tale for Madera ladies (July 21)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
Bula Blazer of Madera offers this cautionary tale, which happened in early June:
“I was volunteering at the hospital,” Bula said, “and after I got off duty, about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, I went to my car. A pickup drove in right beside me.
“This fellow got out of this pickup, and he came up to my car and said, ‘Oh, there’s smoke coming out from under your car. Something needs to be done.’
“And I said, ‘Oh, thank you,’ and then he leaned down and looked under my car, beneath the two front wheels. And he says, ‘Oh, you need a part. I can fix it for you if you buy it.’
“I said I’d have it towed to my mechanic, but he said, ‘Ma’am, it would just take a little bit of time. I can go get the part, and I’ll be back and put it in for you. It will be no problem.’ Well, I finally told him okay.”
Bula said the man got on his cell phone and talked into it, and reported that the part was available at a parts store nearby. He said, ‘Joe has the part. I’ll go get it and be back in a few minutes.”
Bula said she had wanted to drive her Taurus home, but the man cautioned her she should not do that.
“He said if I did, it would burn out all my electric. It sounded serious.”
Bula said he left and came back in about 10 minutes, got under the car and “replaced the part.”
Then, he followed her to her bank, where she withdrew enough money to pay him in cash — about $90 total.
“Well, I fell for the whole story.”
Bula had her mechanic look at the car later, and he told her she had been taken. The part the man had mentioned wasn’t under the car at all. It was behind the engine.
She said she hoped printing her story would “keep some other 80-year-old lady from getting taken.”
