By Shirley Thomas

A 70-YEAR-OLD-MAN, fleeced by a 39-year-old woman in a visiting relationship, is now a bitter man for being ‘taken to sea’ by the person he befriended five years ago.
The man, E.A. Benjie, who works with a reputable security firm, claims he met the woman while working with the same service.
They entered into a relationship, and she would visit him. But every time he raised the question of visiting her, she would make an excuse. And so, after five years he still does not know where she resides.
He said over time he would miss little things, but as the saying goes: ‘Love is blind’ So he never made much of it.
“I lost my Blackberry music phone, a Tablet and other things,” he recalls. However after the loss, he confronted her and she told him that she was not giving the items back to him. And she never did.
But it was not until the week before Christmas that he had cause to report his new losses to the police.
He claimed he had knotted gold jewelry to the value of about $800,000 that he had accumulated over the years. He claimed he gave the woman money to buy ‘Chinese food’ and drink. She made the purchase and returned. But while she was away, he discovered the jewelry was missing and confronted her. She swore she knew absolutely nothing of the disappearing gold.
Meantime, he has plunged into grief mode and has been taking his losses very badly. To add to his misery, the woman has stopped visiting him and would not answer the phone whenever he calls. It goes into voicemail. And to put salt in the wound, she no longer works at the guard service.
The man has made reports to two police stations, but all he can tell them is her name… and that she lives somewhere between Diamond and Friendship. Benjie also claims that she has taken back the one photograph he had of her.
Asked when did he realize in the five-year period that she would take things that were not hers, he replied, “She is a thief. She’s always a thief. She was even praying that I would die and leave everything to her.”