THE 5th AVENUE SOUTH SHUFFLE

   We had a con man who used to visit Naples every year--like the Asian flu and the creeping crud. He had a sweet little scam that was simple, effective, and would pull him in a couple hundred a day. In the mid-sixties that was good bucks, considering I wasn't making much more than that a month. His scam worked like this.

  He loved the many gift shops on 5th Ave South. In the shop, he'd select a greeting card and take it to the counter. There, he'd explain that it was his daughter's birthday and he, a traveling salesman, was going to miss it. But, he could send a pretty card and he wondered if the clerk had a nice, clean, crisp twenty he could put inside. The clerk always obliged.

  Our villian would take the twenty, seal it  in the card, and put the card in his inside sportcoat pocket. Then, he'd reach for his wallet. 
  "Durn," he'd mutter, "left it in the car. But, no problem, I'll just run out and get it." Saying that, he'd take the card from his inside pocket, put it on the counter and say, "Hold that 'til I get back."

  And the clerk would, many times until the end of the workday. Then they'd rationalize the customer had gone somewhere else, or whatever, and open the card to retrieve the money. There they found a folded piece of blank card stock. And no money.

Our Slicky-boy had, of course, had two cards in his coat pocket. The new one with the money and his prop to leave on the counter.

  Some days he'd hit three or four stores on 5th Ave before he left for, well, greener pastures. He always made Bonita his next stop and always came from Miami, via Marco Island. Lacking computers back then, we couldn't trace him any further.

  It took a few years to nail him and when we did it was with modern technology.
  That we invented.

  Tell you how next time.