Spokane7
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November 2, 2011 in City
Victim of a small-time con man – and of one’s own good intentions
He said his name was Brandon. He said he was embarrassed.
He said he needed gas money to drive to Coeur d’Alene and back. It was an emergency. He said he lived just down the street. I’m your neighbor, he said.
I thought he looked like one of the young people I’d seen around. He said he needed to pick someone up – his mother? his wife? – and they had his wallet and he’d bring the money right back … and somehow, even as I recognized the unmistakable template of the con, I found myself believing him. Hadn’t I, in fact, seen him in the neighborhood? Didn’t he live in the house three doors down? Plus this: What is wrong with me, if my only response to a person in need is to size up their criminal potential?
I didn’t have any change. So I gave him 20 bucks.
And, as you no doubt have ascertained, that was the last time I saw Brandon.
That would have been the end of it, but then a friend brought something to my attention this week. Her husband, she said, had given a young man at the door 20 bucks. For gas money. Her husband wanted to be a good neighbor, he said. He thought he recognized the kid.
My friend pointed me toward the last couple of issues of the Inlander, in the Cheers and Jeers section. It included a couple of notes about neighbor Brandon, such as this one:
“On Monday the 10th a stranger knocked on our door around the area of Market & Francis, claiming to be a neighbor from down the street that worked at Holy Family ER. … The guy said his name was Brandon and asked for $$ to get his wife back from Coeur d’Alene and he would pay us right back. If you’re reading this, I can’t believe my husband fell for your scam.”
This, it probably goes without saying, was a Jeer. Cheers and Jeers occupy that fun-to-read portion of the weekly newspaper’s classified ads that includes the “I Saw You” ads (i.e., “Lonely Guys’ Love Notes to Waitresses”).
In the past couple of weeks, Brandon has accumulated several Jeers. He’s been showing up all over town, it seems, and I’m not Spokane’s only sucker.
Officer Jennifer DeRuwe, spokeswoman for the Spokane Police Department, said minor cons like Brandon’s are pretty common – and fairly successful – here in the Lilac City.
“We are a very generous community,” she said, “and we like to think the best of people, and this happens quite often where people are taken advantage of.”
The guys in the parking lot at the grocery store. The sign-holding panhandlers. The skater kids downtown, hitting you up for change. It seems that there’s more of all this lately, and it would make sense given our economy. I don’t usually give, but I will sometimes, depending on my mood or the pitch or my need to feel more generous than I really am.
Sometimes I think I do it out of futile frustration with the mean-spiritedness in our politics – the petty meanness, the ginned-up justifications for selfishness, the overrationalized hard-heartedness. Not long ago, in an acrimonious email exchange over my support for Occupy Spokane, I was confronted with a demand: Had I ever failed to meet a financial obligation?
Why, yes. If you list all the mistakes a person can make, I’d have to check off a lot of boxes. I asked my correspondent if that made him feel morally superior. No, he said – just intellectually superior. But hey – superior all the same.
So sometimes, if I give that guy at the offramp a buck or give some change to the guy who says he wants it for beer, I’m not doing it because I think I’m generous or because I think the person asking is pure enough at heart. I’m doing it, on some level, because I want all those people – the unemployment specialist who writes anonymously to me to rail against the lazy, the guys who proclaim we’re in an epidemic of people refusing to work – to fail in their rhetorical bid to demonize need.
Which is, I know, stupid.
Most of the people Brandon fleeced are just trying to be kind. Cathy Dietrich is another person who recently fell for the out-of-gas story. An English teacher at Ferris, Dietrich said she just found herself quickly, intuitively persuaded that the young man at her door needed help. She also gave him $20.
As soon as she closed the door, she said, she knew she’d been had. “There were so many clues I should have picked up on,” she said.
Dietrich incorporated her experience into her recent teaching of “Julius Caesar,” to illustrate one of her main themes: People view others through the prism of their own experience. Cassius is manipulative and dishonest, and he expects dishonesty from others; Brutus is honorable and noble, and he expects honesty from others. He comes to a bad end, listening to the cunning Cassius.
I think she makes a good point, though I didn’t give Brandon money because I’m fundamentally honest. I gave it to him because I’ve been desperate and broke and stupid and flailing about for help I did not deserve, and I know – or I hope, at least – that being stupid is not a life sentence.
In any case, Brandon’s got our money, and we’re the ones red in the face now.
“I was embarrassed about it, and I didn’t want to tell my husband,” Dietrich said. “I finally told him about it two weeks later.”
Shawn Vestal can be reached at (509) 459-5431 or shawnv@spokesman.com. Follow him on Twitter at @vestal13.
The draw of the unknowable 
another_perspective on November 02 at 4:20 a.m.
How come Brandon isn’t running for Mayor, Govenor or President? He has politician written all over himself.
polistra on November 02 at 4:33 a.m.
Gas money is a very common begging trick. I got suckered by a young woman using that trick last year. She was a good actress, but not very smart … she tried it on me again the very next day, apparently not remembering who she’d already suckered.
schleufer on November 02 at 6:59 a.m.
i used to have a policy for family - if you come onto hard times my door is always open if you need some money or a car to drive until you get back on your feet i can do that too. this all ended a few years ago when i let a family member stay here for a couple years while he went to school - no charge. i lent him several thousand dollars to buy a car and then he moved out and left no forwarding address then his phone got disconnected. i cant afford to be giving away money like that but this isnt going to break me.
i made an announcment. the bank the car lot and the hotel are now closed! this applies to everyone! i traded in my 3 used cars and got one good one and changed the locks on my house. this person screwed it up for everyone over not that much money. i know mainly the reason people like this borrow money from friends and family is because the banks wont give it to them. i really dont feel like a sucker. this person was given a chance and repaid it by doing this. i know who i am and now everybody knows who he is too.
Lewis on November 02 at 7:45 a.m.
the gas scam has been around for as long as i can remember, when i lived in portland the city asked everyone to stop giving out money instead we could go to one of the many churches that served food and bought a book of food vouchers when someone asked we said here is a free meal, giving them a voucher.
it made all the druggies looking for money to go somewhere else.
JayNW on November 02 at 8:39 a.m.
Can’t believe how many people fall for this. I may lend a very close friend a few bucks in time of need, but never a stranger. Just can’t trust anyone these days. Drug addicts will resort to anything, including stealing from a sick dying person in the hospital, their own family- let alone strangers who are gullible.
tobiasg on November 02 at 8:39 a.m.
Schleufer, it sounds as though there might be more to that story than you’re telling us, perhaps another side we haven’t heard.
I help others when I can but I am often suspicious of sob stories and scams.
richie on November 02 at 9:06 a.m.
Mr.Brandon got me, too. Exact same story. Crestline and Empire. I remember you, bud……watch your back.
schleufer on November 02 at 9:57 a.m.
thats one of the reasons people keep doing these sorts of things…there is always sombody there to stick up for them no matter what they do.
zelda on November 02 at 11:51 a.m.
My doorbell has been rung by every door-to-door scamster in the area and I haven’t fallen for any of the cons. I’ve had people puporting to be exterminators or driveway sealers and of course there are always the magazine crews in the summer. Last winter a guy came to the door saying he was selling steaks. The give-away is that they always have a laminated 5x7 or 8x10 card with the merchandise but they will only show it to you, not give it to you.
Things got really interesting a couple of weeks ago when some kids about 8 to 10 years old showed up with a magazine ad inside a Ziplock bag, trying to sell subscriptions. I thought, “Terrific. Now we’ve got street urchins and Artful Dodgers checking out the house to see if anyone is home.”
CommentPerson on November 02 at 12:28 p.m.
I know exactly who this story is about. His name is Brandon Pier. Watch out for this guy, he is a tweaker and don’t fall for his crap. White little car with B sticker in window. How many people has he actually gotten? He is a great liar, so I can see how he easily manipulates people. Just sucks theres people like this in the world that take advantage of peoples well being.
Teseract on November 02 at 2:54 p.m.
This is one reason I stopped answering the door, period, unless I’m expecting a package or someone calls me before hand. Most people have cell phones so even someone dropping by can call me from the front porch if I don’t answer.
There’s really no reason to ever open the door for a stranger in this day and age, but people seem to think it’s impolite not to. I find it more impolite to have strangers knocking on my door trying to sucker me out of my money.
I’ve saved myself much time and worry from Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Comcast salesmen and annoying neighbors following this no-answer policy.
Thayne on November 02 at 3:52 p.m.
What’s the saddest part of this are the people who actually need the help and don’t get it. It’s creeps like this that make people (including me) even more cynical. My Dad was always helping people. He said he pictured himself in a position of needing a hand up. That’s why it’s better to give to organizations like the Salvation Army and others that actually do help the needy.
gauzey on November 03 at 3:41 a.m.
BRANDON PIER, yep, I know him too. And I know how to get a hold of him. After reading the story yestereday, a friend of mine said he was at his door too a few weeks ago.
CommentPerson on November 03 at 9:10 a.m.
Gauzey, you know him too huh? I’m sorry… I feel your pain! lol
He is EVERYWHERE! What a effing creep. I see him every now and then running or driving down the street or doing the door to door thing. Even sadder thing is he brags about how much money he makes doing this.
bear99 on December 30 at 11:49 p.m.
Ok if you know how to get a hold of Mr. Pier just post it on here and Im sure someone will get a hold of him!
There are plenty of us that suckered into his scam!
Spokane is not that large of town - I know of about 25 people who are on the look out for Mr. Pier !
Best chose for him is to turn himself into Spokane wa Police department.
bear99 on January 21 at 10:49 p.m.
Brandon or Eric - the group is getting much larger ! Giving your car make and license number to all that you have scammed ! You always show up somewhere ! Hopefully you dont run into the wrong person and they pull into a house AND ! Your information was not hard to find ! Be carefull some of the people i have heard talk about you, and there many that are not happy with you playing them as fools ! Ive chalked it up to you as a charitable gift ! Some of the rest dont feel it my way !
Boy if i had friends like you have Brandon C. PIER I would get new friends.
God Bless you, Brandon, Chris, Eric