I left my cash in San Francisco!

As I was thinking about stories to share, I thought of this one – the ironic twist is that I now live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I know of a few guys who wouldn’t think twice about performing this scam if times were tough…funny how things work out.

It was 1997 and I had just graduated high school and was on a trip to the west coast for the first time with my mother. We did everything the normal tourist did, we visited the wineries, coasted the shoreline, and we went to San Francisco. There we visited the famous “Rock” and strolled along the Piers; it was here that I saw him.

He was standing on the corner with three bottle caps and a pea. The game was very familiar to me, keep your eye on the pea and win big, except, I knew something that he did not… I was a magician.

I, like most magicians, have seen variations upon variations of this game and I knew most of them inside out. I quickly picked up on the fact that this man was here to make serious money, I spotted his two plants, the ones that kept winning and losing to entice the “suckers” to play. I saw the men who just happened to keep eye contact with him from across the street, scanning the crowd for those officers who patrolled the strip for illegal activity. Well, I thought if he can scam them, why not scam him. I mean I could use some cash. So I watched, I watched him palm, slide, misdirect and exchange that pea for others, so that every time the “sucker” picked a cap, it was nowhere to be found.

Well, I waited until the pea was under a cap (instead of waiting in his hand to be placed anywhere at his convince) and piped up “I know where it is”. He glanced at me and saw something, a challenge, he knew he was about to be had.

Then it happened, I let my guard down, I forgot to have the money ready. He asked that all bets be placed on the table, I looked away for only one second, enough to get my wallet and lay forty dollars on the table. Once I had let go and watched the money float into his hands, I knew I would never see it again.

He was waiting for that moment, the perfect, most natural misdirection you could ask for, and the thing was, I knew that he had taken the pea away. It probably was the most innocent little move to obtain it, but he had it. It would not have mattered which cap I chose, it would not have been under any of them. It was in his palm, like so many other times. I just looked at him, gave him that little look of “ok you win” and pointed to a cap. He smiled and showed to all that I too had been had.

Needless to say, I felt it my duty to help the next guy out, I was out the cash, but why ruin a perfectly good plan. After my causing a little uncomfortable help to others, he was forced to relocate for the day. All my mother could do was fret about how I had lost forty dollars. All I could think was that I had paid forty dollars for an unforgettable and wonderful story of San Francisco; one that I did not regret in anyway.

So for all those who are on the streets scamming us, thank you for the memories.

Until next time.