A video clip on the BSL Zone site shows gangs in Paris who act Deaf to con money from tourists.
Now it seems the trend of acting deaf in order to commit a crime has spread to the UK too.
The Braintree and Witham times (who’ve unfortunately used the term ‘deaf and mute’ in their article) have reported on an incident in a local estate agency.
Extract:
Brazen distraction thieves walked into an estate agents and stole an employee’s brand new iPhone 6.
Stuart Bonnett, 26, had only been working for CM Rent in Newland Street, Witham, for a month when two men posing as deaf and mute took the phone from his desk on February 19.
He and his colleague were both busy on their landlines when the men walked in.
The property consultant, from Chelmsford, said: “There were two of them who came in with clipboards to say they were from a deaf and mute charity.
“One kept trying to point at his clipboard and as soon as I looked right, the other guy must have snatched it.
“I am pretty annoyed and shocked because it takes a lot of guts to walk into someone’s work and steal from them.”
Essex Police are appealing for more information.
Call Braintree Police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.
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Cathy
February 27, 2015
What brazen cheek!!! It is most unfortunate that hearing people can easily “act deaf” and pretend they are supporting deaf causes; but deaf people can never “act hearing!” So that is a kind of perverse empowerment that hearies have over deafies!
I hope the con men are caught and brought to book. They should apologise not only to the bloke they stole from but to the deaf community!
This kind of behaviour puts deaf people in a bad light through no fault of our own, except by being taken advantage of by hearies. This sort of caper is not on and furthermore I think they should donate to the deaf community: matching the same price as the iphone they stole!! That would show real contrition!
We have enough going on with the ATW fraud without other hearies jumping onto the bandwagon to emulate us in a negative perverse fashion!
Linda Parkin
February 27, 2015
Don’t forget the famous “Deaf mugger” clip on YouTube!
Seriously though, we get reports of this sort of thing from all over the country, some con artists pretend to be raising money for RAD. We always inform police and the Deaf Scams now has a permanent place on our newsreel: http://royaldeaf.org.uk/newsid_106/Deaf_scams