The Grifters Revisited

Long Beach, CA

Jim Thompson would be proud.

A mother/son team, Lisa Ruby Adams, 37, and Marcello Adams, 20, were arrested in an undercover sting operation after screwing up a small time long con on an elderly man in Long Beach. After approaching him in a parking lot and offering to fix a dent in his car, they became friends and soon convinced him that they had a sick daughter in the hospital and $1500.00 would fix things right up.

The trick to a successful con is consistency and believability, which is why the short and simple cons are usually more successful. People want to believe. Paranoia is not something we're born with, which is why so many of us are suckers. And this is where things fell apart. The mark got suspicious when they asked him to wire transfer the money to an unknown man in a different city.

So the mark checked the hospital. No daughter. He contacted the police and they set up the sting.

Lisa's wanted both here and in Florida for this sort of thing, and the two are believed to be connected to an organized crime ring that bounces through the countryside preying on the elderly. Like Dracula, or something.

If we're lucky we'll find out that there's actually a sordid, incestuous love triangle. I have my hopes.