Strangest Sweetheart Swindler Segments?

[fivecats]

My vote would be for the case where a middle aged woman fell in love with her coworker, whom she thought was deaf. After moving in with her, he proceeded to scare her by saying the mafia was after them and that they would have to go on the run. As I recall, he even dragged her mother into the whole scam- they were constantly fleeing some unknown fear. The fear was compounded by the fact that the woman's father spotted the car driving along and decided to go after the guy to shoot out his tires. The gunshot sounds only confirmed the scammer's story, since everyone was crouched down in the back seat to avoid the gunshots! Eventually the mother and kids were dropped off, but the woman continued to stay with the man, who by now wasn't deaf after all, and who started physically abusing her for months. Finally she escaped- and he had maxxed out her credit cards after the whole ordeal. I think they caught him, but what a case! Most of us have had bad relationship experiences, but man o' livin'! This one wins my vote by a landslide!