Behold the Power of the Interweb! It all started innocently enough, with Susan asking in the Daily Heights Forums whether anyone had been accosted by The Panhandler with the Mother who has Wrecked her Car. It didn’t take long to determine that this guy, who we’ll call the ProHo Gaffler for short, has probably defrauded hundreds of people in Prospect Heights, and as Set Speed reported, also in Fort Greene. Somebody else said they thought they saw him at Blue Ribbon eating oysters and drinking a martini with a girl. So we offered a $25 bounty for an actual photo of this guy, thinking this was a total longshot and, heh heh, we would never have to pay out.

Well… now we have this report from HJC (a.k.a. “11238″), who claims she just saw the Prospect Heights Con Man: “I was getting my car at the garage on Underhill between Prospect and St. Marks, where he came up to the passenger window and started the whole story. He asked me if I knew where to find a tow truck, because his mother had a stroke. He then went on saying that he works at NBC and that he can get me tickets to a concert. He asked for $15.00. Meanwhile, he is going on and on and on, and all I am thinking is, how the HELL am I going to get his picture? So finally I just asked what time it was, and looked at my phone and snapped.”

Heaven forbid that DAILY HEIGHTS act as judge, jury and executioner on matters as serious as “who’s scamming who” in Prospect Heights… but now we have Susan in the comments below making a positive ID: “That’s the guy!” she says. The rules of the contest were as follows: To claim the reward, the photo must be independently confirmed as “that guy” (as in, “Hey! It’s that guy! The guy who said he could get me Letterman tickets!”)

So congratulations, 11238, you win! We are preparing a special OVERSIZED CHECK (just like you see on all those Jerry Lewis telethons) to present to you next Thursday at the Daily Heights Real-Life Happy Hour.

“I cannot believe I saw him today. I am PSYCHED!” 11238 said in the aftermath. “The best was that I wanted to bust the guy after I took the picture, but I was so happy I got it, I just said ‘NO!’ and drove away.”

Links:
Con Man Says Supersize Me [set speed]
The Panhandler with the Mother who has wrecked her car [Susan in the Daily Heights Forum]
Reward for Photographic Evidence of the Panhandler [Daily Heights]

An Englishman in New York - a freelancer who spends an inordinate amount of time window-gazing on deadline - captured candid shots of that knife-sharpening guy in his van as he cruised the Streets of ProHo on a recent April afternoon. While Mr. Del Re wouldn’t sit for an interview, the New York Times had already profiled the guy, way back in 1997–in a time when there was no American Idol, low-carb pasta, nor JFK shuttle. A time so remote that not one episode of Sex and the City had ever been broadcast (and NONE were available on DVD). A time when … anyway, Mr. Del Re was born in Mola, Italy and is about 49 years old: He work as a commodities trader until the 1987 Wall Street crash, when his firm went bust.

Link: Cutting Edge [An Englishman in New York]