Luigi's Back

Five or six years ago, Dubai was 'home' to a slightly notorious scam-artist known as Luigi. He used to sell dodgy jackets that he claimed were made by Versace or Armani or something like that. I had one or two encounters with him, never bought anything from him - there was a very long sales pitch that you had to listen to before you got anywhere. The basic story was that the stuff had been flown in from Italy for an exhibition. Now they were a little bit tired, it wasn't worth sending them back to Italy, so he was just trying to flog them off at a cheap rate before going home. Yeah right.

There were letters about this guy in the Gulf News, and then he disappeared and faded from memory.

A few days ago, I was getting into my car at the Holiday Centre (always his favourite haunt). A guy pulled up behind me, and I assumed he wanted my space. No problem. Then he said something to me (can't remember what, or in what language, but it got my attention). I said something to him and he said 'ah, you are Eeenglish gentleman? I am Eeetaliano, I am working for Versace!'. The penny dropped immediately. I walked over to him and said 'you want to sell me a jacket right? I've met you before.' 'Ciao, have a nice day' he said, and sped off into the sunset.