Two thieves scammed a Marlborough storeowner by claiming they could read his mind and reveal personal information about him before stealing money from his store, police said.
Police said that two Indian Punjabi men stole more than $1,000 from the Marlborough Country Convenience Store on Monday. The men told the storeowner that they were guruji, a type of Hindu priest, and that they could read his mind.
Storeowner Yogesh Patel, 29, who is also from India, said that he had heard of the scam but never believed it and never thought it could happen to him. He said he's now upset and embarrassed. "I'd never been (scammed), and every time I heard about it I laughed at it," Patel said.
Patel said the scam began with a simple mind game. The men asked him what his favorite flower was, and they opened a paper with the correct answer on it: "Rose." They then told him to think of a wild animal, and they again had written down his choice.
The scam quickly escalated to personal information involving family members and a former girlfriend. "They also said my wife's name that not too many people know," Patel said. "My mom's name, they told me. And they told me what was my future goal."
Patel said he believes the men were able to hypnotize him into giving them money. Surveillance tape shows him putting cash into a hollowed-out book before getting more money from the safe.
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