Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A Cheney farmer, 75, fell victim to a classic bunco scheme. A con man posing as a real estate agent learned the farmer had $2,500 in the bank. The man told the farmer that he had inside connections at the Alan Race Track near Coeur d’Alene.

So he talked the farmer into withdrawing his money and accompanying him to the track. There, the gullible farmer handed $2,500 in cash to the “inside” man, with instructions to put it on the winning horse.

Then they told the farmer that because the authorities were watching, it would be necessary for them to hop on a train to Tacoma to collect his winnings. When they got to Tacoma, the men sadly informed him that somehow, due to circumstances beyond their control, the horse had lost. Then they disappeared.

 Once the farmer realized he had been “buncoed,” he took a forlorn train ride back home. He was “prostrated” with sorrow over losing his life savings.

More from the bunco beat: Spokane’s police chief took the opportunity to blast the Alan Race Track as a “pernicious” catalyst for crime. Recently, two other con men extracted $700 in bogus bets from a particularly helpless class of citizens: invalids in a local hospital. Yes, the con men had actually gone to the hospital and collected “bets” from patients sick in bed.