CAMPUS BRIEF: Friday, January 22, 1999

Drexel student a victim of flim-flam at Penn After exiting Mellon Bank at 36th and Walnut streets at about 4 p.m on January 13, the student was walking in the direction of Market Street on 36th Street when he was approached by a man claiming to be a foreigner from South Africa who asked for his help, according to police records. Another man then approached the pair and offered his assistance, saying he could take the foreigner to a half-way house. The foreigner asked the student to watch his money while the other man took the foreigner to the bus station to get his passport out of a locker there. He asked the student to put some of his own money as collateral into the pile of bills. The foreigner then wrapped the money in a red bandanna handkerchief and gave it to the student to hold. The two men then left in a black four-door hatchback with a Pennsylvania license plate, heading south on 36th Street, police said. When the student arrived at his home and opened the handkerchief, he found only a pile of paper. It is unclear what happened to the money. The man who posed as a foreigner is described as a black male, approximately 5'10", 190 pounds with a medium-dark complexion, black hair and a mustache. His accomplice is a black male, about 6'0", 210 pounds with a dark complexion and short black hair. -- Laura McClure