A man who used to con people of their hard-earned cash learned the hard way, when he fell prey to the tough hand of mob justice at Musina last Tuesday.

The man, of Zimbabwean origin, conned another Zimbabwean woman out of R500 on Monday afternoon and disappeared in the busy streets of the border town. The conned lady recognised the man the next day and alerted community members, who gave the con man the hiding of his life before he was rescued by the police.

Scores of curious shoppers cheered as the con man was beaten up with fists and kicked all over the body, as the conned woman screamed that she wanted her money back.

The woman explains how she fell victim: “I was doing window shopping when this man approached me. He looked so innocent and asked me if I could assist him in changing his US dollars into rands. He said he did not know the town very well and asked me to accompany him to a place where he could do the currency exchange. I felt pity for him and decided to help. That was the worst mistake I made!”

Without asking his name, the lady  walked with the man for about 100 metres when he asked her if she had South African money. “He said he wanted to see a sample of the South African money as he was afraid that he might be conned when we did the exchange. I told him that I had R500 in cash and he asked me to give it to him. I gave him the money, because he was so kind and I did not suspect anything. He opened his bag and took out some newspapers, which he used to wrap around my money. He put the money in his bag and then took it out and gave it to me again. He immediately vanished into the busy shopping centre. When I unwrapped the newspapers, I found that all my money was gone.”

The woman said she went to town again on Tuesday. “I immediately recognised the man crossing the busy street. I then called for help and community members ran after him until they caught him. After a thorough beating, he was found with R250 in his pocket. People were still eager to beat him up until the police rescued him.”

At the time of going to press, it was not yet known what the fate of the man was.