“You’ve been working pretty hard the past two weeks on what we learned during our field trip to see the mentalist. Today I want to test one of the lessons in ‘real world conditions’. To that end, I’m going to see how well you can use ‘confidence speak’ to ‘buffalo’ someone.”
Sally paused to change lanes.
“I’ve got an expensive laptop in the trunk that was purchased at Costco and a fake membership card plus more fake ID in my pocket. I want you to go into the store with both and convince the person at the returns kiosk to give you a refund. The membership card won’t work, but it will look like a problem with your membership on the mainframe computer, not like it is a counterfeit.”
Nate sat bolt upright in his seat. “You want me to try to get a refund on an item that might be stolen using a fradulent card?”
Sally smiled, “Well, it’s not stolen---I have the receipts on me in case they call the cops. And the card is such a good fake that no one is going to give you a hard time over it once I produce the receipts. Moreover, the laptop is in perfect condition---which means nothing is going to happen if you get into the worst case situation.”
“But having said that, I’m asking you to go through the motions of being a thief who is selling stolen goods. I’ll explain why after the fact.”
By this point she had taken the turn off and was heading towards the parking lot. She shortly parked the car and popped the trunk. She pulled out one of those plastic card holders from a pocket in her vest and handed it to Nate. “There’s the Membership card plus a driver’s license and one of those prepaid credit cards. You can use them as back-up ID. The box in the trunk has the computer. (You’d best take a look at it before you go into the store.) I’ll be waiting here for you when you get back.”
Nate was a bit nervous at this point. “But what if things go sideways?”
“You have my cell phone number.”
She pulled a paperback out of her purse. “Now get cracking. We have other things to do today.”
&&&&
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