Fleecing a Widow.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 436, 11 January 1890, Page 3

Fleecing a Widow.

A worthy widow, Madame Guindorff (a Paris correspondent writes) has been fleeced on a large scale by a veritable company of Paris swindlers. It was all through a puppy-dog, and happened thuswise : Madame Guindorff lived in the Rue de Rennes, and had a canine favourite called ‘Lolo.’ One day the pet escaped into the street, and wandered at large, being eventually captured by a person named Roger, who saw the address of the dog’s mistress on its brass collar. Roger is a chevalier (I'indu-strie of the first water. He is also a good-looking fellow, and when he brought home her dog to the aged but amorous widow, she fell in love with him at first sight and told him to call again. This Roger did, and soon found out that the widow Guindorff possessed a fortune of one million of francs, or £40,000, invested in various securities, besides some valuable house property. Roger began by pilfering plate, jewellery, and small articles from his elderly flame, and these he deposited with divers and sundry avuncular relatives established inofficial Monlv-de-piele throughout. the city. By-and-by Roger related his good luck to his pothouse companions, who also resolved to make the widow’s acquaintance, the rascals eventually forming themselves, under Roger’s lead, into a firm for the purpose of ‘exploiting’ her. They first inveigled her into Bourse speculations, one of them opening a ‘bogus’ office for this purpose. By this means and by making a strong point of ‘office disbursements,’ they fleeced the widow to the tune of about £6,000. Then they made her effect a loan, got her to mortgage some of her property, induced her to embark in commercial affairs —speculations in ostrich eggs, Capa diamonds, and pictures—and would have sent her eventually to the French equivalent for the workhouse but for two reasons. These were _Fif S t, that the old lady’s relatives, hearing about her new-fangled friends - rather late in the day, though—interfered on her behalf; and secondly, that the thieves fell out among themselves and

quarrelled over the plunder. The police being set to work, all the members of the band except Roger, the founder of the charming community, were arrested, and will be tried next week.