You've Been Duped

I remember once I told one of my friends, "You could really easily pretend to be a student. Just come to class, sit in a lecture, and leave since they don't take roll. What if I told you right now that I wasn't actually a student and faking it the whole time?"

Who knew that someone would actually carry out this far fetched plan that my crazy mind game up with? (I've always said that I have a criminal mind, but the restraint of a law abidding citizen). When I woke up this morning, someone I knew from college sent me a link to this article: Man, 36, allegedly posed as student.

The crazy part was that I knew the man, Sheldon. He was in Bruin Republicans, I was in Bruin Democrats, so I saw him at debates (not the best picture, but he's the guy on the right in this debate, click to enlarge). I was perplexed by this guy with an accent who was in the Bruin Republicans, part of the Queer Alliance, and was editor of NOMMO, the African American publication which tends to be very progressive. I thought that this was a little strange, but I never thought it was the work of a con-artist who has outstanding felony warrants for grand-theft credit card fraud.

Though some of my friends knew Sheldon better than me, I still feel duped (or as the oh-so-annoying Ashton Kutcher would say "punk'd"). It makes you wonder how many people out there aren't really who they tell you they are. I know one person I knew from high school ended up marrying a guy who had lied to her for months about his identity. What a scary thought.