Sleight of hand leaves shopkeeper duped

The shopkeeper, who works at Inserv Ltd, a printing and packaging company situated in Mosta, told MaltaToday: "Two women, who couldn't speak a word of English, walked into the outlet and asked me to have a €200 note changed to €20 ones by jotting down their request on a piece of paper. I then checked the €200 note for authenticity and agreed to change it.

"I handed 10 €20 notes to the woman carrying the baby but she seemed to disagree and from what I could understand wanted them changed to €10 notes instead."

The baffled shopkeeper agreed once again and asked the Egyptian woman to hand back the money so that she could replace them with €10 notes as requested.

When both the women left the shop, and the shopkeeper performed an end of day reading, she realised she had been swindled. Instead of being handed 10 €20 notes she was given back five.

The shopkeeper was down €100.

The company's management later checked the CCTV camera footage which evidently showed one of the women pulling off a sleight of hand by slipping the notes under the baby's clothes. Footage also indicated that the baby was a dummy.

"It all fell in place in a matter of minutes - I had been conned. Obviously, the suspects had disappeared into thin air and it was far too late to do anything about the situation but to report the incident to the police," the furious shopkeeper added.

This paper was also informed that a similar case had allegedly taken place in a shop in Birkirkara the same week and another in St Paul's Bay a few months ago.

Following these incidents, shop owners should treat anyone attempting to change large amounts of cash with the utmost of suspicion. The case was reported to the police.

Earlier this month, it was reported in the media that pickpockets were hanging around the Valletta Bus Terminus.