AN­NA LISA PAUL

Se­nior Re­porter

An Ari­ma man was duped of more than $25,000 in cash by a man who pre­tend­ed to be em­ployed at a pop­u­lar gro­cery and promised him an em­ploy­ee dis­count to se­cure a “good deal” on al­co­hol for the hol­i­days.

The 59-year-old man of Christi­na Gar­dens, O’Meara Road, ad­mit­ted that he knew the sus­pect on­ly as “An­i­mal”.

The vic­tim told po­lice he met the sus­pect on De­cem­ber 15 at about 12:39 pm at Maraj West Side Su­per­mar­ket, at the cor­ner of King and Lopez Streets in Ari­ma.

Be­liev­ing the sus­pect to be an em­ploy­ee of the es­tab­lish­ment who could ben­e­fit from pur­chas­ing al­co­holic drinks at a dis­count­ed price, the vic­tim hand­ed over $26,400 in cash and re­ceived a fake in­voice.

It was al­leged that when the vic­tim went to col­lect the al­co­hol, oth­er em­ploy­ees at the gro­cery in­formed him that the sus­pect did not work there.

Sev­er­al at­tempts by the vic­tim to lo­cate the sus­pect have since proven fu­tile.