Canada: Ugandan refugee got rich by stealing coins every day

This is a really old story and I don’t know why it was published just today in Canada, but it’s definitely worth a read.

From the Edmonton Journal:

This city has spawned many cunning and crafty con artists, but few were as colourful as Salim Kara.

It was 14 years ago that the Ugandan refugee made headlines, but his crime shocked an entire city.
Kara stole nearly $2.4 million from Edmontonians — and he did it one coin at a time.

Hired in 1981 to repair light rail transit fare boxes, he began pilfering coins almost immediately. When loonies were introduced in 1987, he must have thought he hit the jackpot, boosting his take to $900 a day.

For 13 years, he stole, and despite a couple of audits and an incriminating videotape, he got away with it.

Neighbours wondered why a man who lived in a million dollar home in posh Whitemud Creek drove to work in a dilapidated 1977 Chev Malibu, a vehicle that was almost 17 years old when he was finally arrested in Sept. 27, 1994.

Read it all to see the African’s detailed scam and how he got away with it for so long.  I wonder what he is doing now, the article doesn’t say.

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