My TV fiasco....!

Los Angeles 2004

Living with out a TV...hm...Sad? Bad? Thank God? Or weird? ha...what ever it is but that's how I started off my life in LA.. with Basic things, in a studio apartment. No much time to think about or cry over, as we got busy with work, study etc. Since there was PC, life was not so tough, as we were connected with outside world,.. by just tapping our fingertips. But would every one think like that? No way, not my dad at least..he felt that's terrible..life with out TV, and so we got this 2 in 1 beautiful, latest TV with DVD as a gift which made him happy and soon we started enjoying it as well. Our life changed,.. from studio to 2 bedroom apartment but of course same TV and same us... Soon it was time for me to move on and this time its not just shifting apartments but to close down n go back, so we started giving away stuff to friends, selling off which ever was fetching what ever price, and soon we had nothing much left but the TV. I was not able to decide..whether to pack it and take it with me, give it to some one for free( many of my friends were eyeing it), sell it...?, just then we came with the idea of putting it in the Craig's list. No sooner we gave in the details online, right then and there some one contacts us through email that he is interested in our TV. Our joy had no bounds.., and we could not believe our luck, but what ever price we were asking was just OK for this person and he was ready to send delivery people to our place right then and there cost ofcourse all his! Our doubts were cleared as he gave us his Western Union Money exchange code Number through which he is gonna send us the money. He wanted to send this TV as a gift to his girl friend in Nigeria, paying all the money for the United postal services. We don't have to do nothing but give the TV to the UPS people who are gonna come home, and take it with them, pack it, since he is going to pay for the packing..and send it to what ever address he asked them to! This all happened like magic with in minutes, online, through emails from both sides! Soon UPS people came over to collect the TV and asked us to come with them to write the address etc..! We can not call nothing a bluff, as they already got the address tapes, which he paid and faxed to the UPS place which was close to us. No fowl play anywhere, even though all of us( including people in the UPS office) were surprised for some one to pay for the packing and transporting a TV to another country,instead of asking the girl to buy a TV locally.Anyways its none of our business since we had not spent a cent on either packing or transporting. TV gone from our sight, we headed to our nearest western union place to take our money. Ha...that's were we got the shock ...nopes..the code does not work, how ever we try..and we try to talk to the person, nopes..he does not exist! No phone,no emails..nothing worked..that's when we realised...we got duped, cheated or what ever name we wanted to give it! Either this person has contacts or may be works as staff of some UPS center in US, so he could print and fax the details which needed to be authentic for the parcel to go! So I am sure the TV reached free of cost to his girl,where ever it was destined to reach, but we daddy's dear girls were left with no money, no 2 in 1 TV but with a huge shock and a sort of shame for getting duped so cleverly! "I need help, I am from Nigeria" kind of emails I simply ignore after this incident, ...and western Union or UPS parcels will always remind me how cleverly he duped us!!