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OGDEN, Utah (AP) -- Despite having one arm in a cast, a fast-fingered finagler is conning store clerks with a money-changing scheme.
He goes in at busy times and buys an inexpensive item, always paying with a $100 bill. After putting his change in his pocket, he attempts to buy the bill back with smaller bills. The amount he puts back, though, doesn't equal $100.
"He does this really fast and there's constantly money changing hands," Weber County sheriff's Detective Mark Lowther said. "It gets pretty confusing.
"This is definitely a scam though," he said. "If it happens one time, you can write (it) off as a mistake in accounting or something, but this has happened at least three or four times now."
The man has his left arm in a cast that stretches from his fingertips to his mid-bicep.
Lowther said the cast could be real or a prop.
"He told one clerk he got hurt in a motorcycle accident in Monticello," Lowther said. "He's really friendly and personable."
Sheriff's deputies are reviewing surveillance tapes from several stores -- all of them along 12th Street.
Since September, the man has done it at least three times, but it's probable there have been more.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
