2 Montreal Cafés Say They Were Targeted By The Same Scammer
Noble Café alleged that he posed as a deliveryman to rob them.
Two Montreal cafés say the same man tried to scam them in a very similar fashion.
In a September 27 Instagram post, Noble Café claimed a man had posed as a deliveryman the day prior in order to steal from their Rue Alexandra location.
Two weeks later, on October 11, Noble posted again to say he had been spotted outside their Avenue Laurier Est location over the weekend — but, this time, a barista recognized him.
"He must have felt it cause he walk[ed] away," Noble owner Marc-Antoine Paquin told MTL Blog.
After this encounter, Paquin said the man kept walking on Avenue Laurier where he allegedly visited Café Méchants Pinsons.
According to the manager of Café Méchants Pinsons, Sophie Akmouche, the man said he wanted to pick up a black hoodie that was put aside for him.
"I said nobody told me [...] but he asked me to check the back for the hoodie in an XXXL. As I was going downstairs, I knew we did not have this size and I immediately thought of the fraudster from Noble, as I saw their post a couple weeks ago," Akmouche told MTL Blog.
"I came right back 30 seconds after and he already took two other hoodies and some coffee bags."
Akmouche said he seemed "a bit surprised" to see her and told her to check the back again, but she refused and asked if he wanted to pay for the products he was holding. She said he told her he would come back later with his brother but he left and didn't return.
"I was pretty convinced he was him but it was difficult to say at that time. But when I saw that Noble posted the photo today of him and that he tried there too, there was no doubt, it was definitely him yesterday, same outfit and everything," she said.
Describing the September 26 incident on Rue Alexandra, Noble claimed the man had also asked the barista to check for something in the back and then grabbed bags of coffee while he was alone. He then allegedly pretended to deliver the coffee, asking for an envelope he said was left for him.
Since no envelope existed, Noble said the man asked to be paid in cash, leaving a false phone number, and the barista complied.
Paquin told MTL Blog the Noble Café team filed a police report but has not received any updates.
A spokesperson for the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal said it can neither confirm nor deny the investigation for confidentiality reasons but it invites anyone with information to contact their local police station or use Info-Crime Montréal.