A retired Salt Lake City cop named Ken, an old friend of mine, was curious a few months ago when he noticed an ad on KSL.com seeking a driver for the family of a wealthy businessman from the United Kingdom being transferred to Salt Lake City.

The ad said the job would pay $500 a week and the driver would have access to the 2010 Mercedes-Benz the client was arranging to purchase upon his arrival to Utah.

As an ex-cop, my friend became immediately suspicious and decided to play along to learn more about what he was sure was a con.

He answered the ad, submitted a résumé and subsequently landed the job. He noticed that even after he was hired, the ad continued to run.

Through correspondence over several months, Ken was told that the client had purchased a home and had arranged for a furniture dealer in Texas to furnish it. Ken was to receive a check for $3,680, deposit it in his account, take $150 out for his "running around" expenses, then transfer the rest to the man in Texas for the furniture.

Hence, the scam.

Ken knew that after he transferred the money from his account to the Texas furniture dealer, the check from the U.K. would bounce and he would be out the money with no way to track down the "client,"who no doubt was using a phony name and contact information.

When the check came, there was a notice attached to the envelope from the U.S. Postal service alerting Ken that it was believed that the mailing was a scam "because the postage is invalid and we believe it may contain counterfeit financial documents." The notice said the Postal Service could not open the envelope because of federal law, but was attaching the notice "for your protection."

Ken didn't deposit the check. And when the "client" sent an email asking why the transaction had not occurred, Ken sent this response:

"I look forward to getting to know your family. You said your wife is Grace. That is one of my favorite names. Could you please send me any nude pictures of her?"

That was the end of the correspondence.

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In a perfect world? • A sheet metal worker recently was laid off after decades of plying his trade.

Not ready to retire, he went to the state's Workforce Services to check what kinds of openings might be available.

He noticed one opening for a state liquor store worker — at the store in Sandy.

He also noticed 20 openings for employment counselors for the state.

If things were running the right way, he says, there would be 20 liquor store job openings, which would greatly reduce the need for employment counselors.

Indeed, under Utah's ratio set by the Legislature for liquor stores based on population, each state-owned outlet serves 17,648 residents, compared with one outlet per 1,118 residents in Washington, the state with the next highest ratio, according to the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association.

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Here's an irony • I wrote recently about a woman and her family of Latino descent who were made to feel uncomfortable at the Lehi Rodeo when the announcer, asking where people in the audience were from, finally asked who in the audience was illegal and suggested throwing them on a passing train.

What's funny (or not so funny) about that is that rodeo is a Spanish word and is, at its roots, a competition among vaqueros. The earliest North American cowboys were mestizo vaqueros, or cowboys of mixed Spanish and Indigenous American descent.

prolly@sltrib.com

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