‘Mango Casanova’ cons seven of RM300,000

Found in Translation logo 2014

AT least seven women are believed to have been cheated of up to RM300,000 by a smooth-talking man dubbed “the Mango Casanova”, reported Harian Metro.

Each woman is said to have fallen under the spell of the 53-year-old man after eating a ripe mango offered by him.

Not only did he cheat the women, but he also slept with them after claiming that he had fallen in love, the daily reported.

The man was also not choosy with his victims, who included an unmarried 25-year-old woman, single mothers in their 40s and 50s and even a 65-year-old grandmother.

A divorcee who wanted to be known as Nita, 37, said she suspected that the man had used black magic on her as she blindly agreed to his demands.

“I tracked down six other women who were cheated by the man in a similar manner. Two of us have reported the matter to the police.”

She tracked the women down after reading messages in the man’s telephone while he was sleeping, it was reported.

The women, she claimed, had also eaten ripe mangoes offered by the man.

“He is a sweet talker and I never once thought that I was being cheated,” she said.

Nita said after two weeks of meeting each other, the man claimed he had fallen in love with her and wanted to get married.

“He moved into my house and I supported him for a month and gave him money,” she was quoted as saying.

The man then threatened to expose the photos and videos of their intimate moments if she refused to follow his demands.

> Harian Metro also reported that a group of researchers from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in Skudai, Johor Baru, had come up with a prototype for an “amphibian” house as a long-term solution for residents living in flood-prone areas.

UTM’s Structure and Materials Department associate professor Dr Mohamad Ibrahim Mohamad said researcher Dr Zulhilmi Ismail and PhD student Ali Nekooie had developed the prototype, the daily reported.

The research, he said, was aimed at identifying an alternative way to avoid property damage during floods.

“The house is based on the Archimedes principle and allows the whole building to float and be stable during floods,” he said.

?  Found in Translation is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.