Video: Jalonta Freeman Buys Fake iPad for $200

Two famous quotes come quickly to mind...

First, "[t]here's a sucker born every minute," often attributed to P.T. Barnum; but most likely first uttered by either famous con-man Joseph "Paper Collar Joe" Bessimer, or "Cardiff Giant" hoaxster David Hannum.

And, second -- and perhaps more relevantly and tellingly -- there's W.C. Fields's: "You can't cheat an honest man; he has to have larceny in his heart in the first place."

At around 1:10 or so in the video, Ms Freeman, the "victim," says that she'd never do anything like that to anyone, but I'm dubious. While she might not do precisely that to someone, I've always believed that W.C. Fields was dead on, and that only those who are capable of at least certain kinds of bad acts can become victims of them.

Obviously, I'm not saying the every victim is, himself/herself, a closet victimizer (though, that said, it certainly tends to pan-out with things like child molestation victims who later become molesters, themselves; but now I digress... sorry); I'm simply saying that a truly honest person is hard, indeed, to truly fool in this manner.

For starters, what person of color -- especially one from the sort of neighborhood from which she, I'm sorry, obviously hails -- doesn't assume, right out of the gate, that an item sold that way isn't hot? Nothing in the world will convince me that she didn't think she was buying something stolen; and so, right there, if true, is at least some of Fields's larceny in her heart.

But, candidly, I don't think I believe her story. I'm not even sure it really happened. It wouldn't surprise me, one bit, if the real truth of this situation is that she read about it happening elsewhere (as the news correspondent said, there are reports of same out there), and then she (and her sister, obviously) set everything up so that she could claim it happened, just for the attention... and maybe even the possibility of getting on TV; the latter of which, if so, obviously worked.

I've watched a lot of both witnesses and criminals tell their stories; and while I'm not yet good enough to recognize all the micro-expressions in real time (I've been trained; but I'm still at the point where I must video record them and then play at least some of them back in slow motion to tell, for sure), I certainly spotted at least a few such expressions in this woman's video testimony -- and also in her inflections -- which suggest that she's flat-out lying.

Even before I replayed the video four or five times to verify that I was, in fact, seeing the indications of deception in her micro-expressions, I spotted, right away, that she doesn't even have lenses in her eyeglass frames. Sadly, though, for my deception-detection purposes, here, such as that no longer tells us quite as much as it once might have. There are now people out there who, believe it or not, wear lensless frames simply as a fashion statement; and so we have to be careful not to read too terribly much into that particular factor. Still, I at least consider it, potentially, a small indicator of general mindset...

...which mindset, if I'm right, would certainly include the both ability and willingness to fake being ripped-off just for the attention (which, after all, is what lensless eyeglass frames are intended to attract); and maybe even a chance at being on TV: the attention-seeker's pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow.

My gut tells me that that's actually the truth of it; that it never really happened; and that it's all just an attention-seeking game she's playing. But, to know for sure, I'd have to spend more time with her, either asking her questions or, preferably, watching someone else so do. Not even ten minutes of that, under the right circumstances, and I'll bet I could nail it, 100% accurately.

The bottom line, for me, at this point, is that it's more likely than not a big hoax, perpetrated by Ms Freeman. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm almost sufficiently certain to bet a hundred bucks on it; and would happily bet even ten times that much if I could, again, just spend some time with her, and watch her further interrogated.

[sigh] Oy. [shakes head in disbelief]

3 negatives make a negative.... so her advice holds up!

You're an idiot. Take this as a lesson that if it's "too good to be true and you don't already know what I'm gonna say next, you need to educate yourself."