A man who fell victim to a television scam is warning other people not to be conned, too.
The regretful man, who does not wish to be named, was with his wife and children at Gipsy Lane retail park in Luton at about 2pm on Sunday when he was approached by a man in a white van.
After much persuasion he agreed to buy two televisions for £180, but to his dismay the sets turned out to be old and broken, not new as promised.
The man said: “He was so insistent, and we were planning on buying a TV in a few months anyway so I thought I would go for it. I don’t usually fall for traps like this, but the man kept saying I would like what he had in the back of the van. I didn’t have the cash on me so I took him to the cash machine. Then I became wary and wanted to change my mind but he wouldn’t let me. He drove off quickly with my money and I realised the televisions were old and broken, like they’d been thrown out by someone.”
Minutes after the scam, a second person in a car approached the same man in the Gipsy Lane car park and offered him another TV, but this time the man called the police.
A young woman was also approached by dodgy dealers in the retail park in December.
Natalee Hazelwood said: “My mum and I were leaving Argos with a TV we had just bought when someone drove up to us and asked if we wanted to buy a TV. We said no then we saw them cruising round the car park asking other people the same thing.”
A Beds Police spokesperson said: “Do not buy things out of the back of vans. If it is something there it’s usually stolen. If it seems too good to be true it probably is. Please use your common sense. Police do investigate these crimes when they are reported but often by the time we get there the perpetrators have disappeared.”