The Dom-Post this morning though throws in a curve-ball; check this out:
Sharon Armstrong was carrying four driver's licences when she was arrested in Argentina accused of trying to smuggle out five kilograms of cocaine.
Ms Armstrong, who has claimed she was duped into diverting to Buenos Aires simply to pick up some documents, had spent more than a week in the city.
She checked in just one locally made suitcase for her flight to London to meet a man she had been dating online.
Police confiscated personal effects, including an iPhone, passport, Farmers card and Argentinian, Australian and United States cash. They also found four driver's licences and a piece of paper listing Hotel Caoca, where Ms Armstrong is believed to have stayed in Buenos Aires.
There are two rather salient questions raised by the above:
- Why was Ms Armstrong carrying four driver's licences, and
- Why would she discard any luggage she carried from New Zealand to take a different suitcase onto her London-bound flight?
We can understand that those who support Ms Armstrong want to see her home at the earliest possible opportunity. After reading what we've read today however, we're finding it difficult to have too much sympathy. Ms Armstrong seems to have made some bad choices, and is now facing the consequences.
6 comments:
1. It doesn't specify if they are all NZ licences or for different identities. She could have an Australian one, plus an old NZ one and that would be three. Four would be unusual but not impossible.
2. Maybe the 'new' suitcase was larger and she repacked her stuff.
However, I agree this is starting to smell - but I guess we shall see. If the next thing would be revelations of financial difficulties then I would start to turn.
Also, the licences may have been planted by the 'scammer' and she was none the wiser about them. If she was blinded by 'love'(lust) she may have thought nothing of repacking her things in the suitcase that had been left for her. People often buy more stuff on holiday and ditch the suitcase they left with.
If she was foolish enough to fall for someone online, then divert to argentina, then pick up the suitcase, then she could easily have been foolish enough to also pick up something that held four driver licences.
On the other hand, she might have been intelligent enough to realise what she was picking up. We will have to wait and see.
Oh come on, just because she is an old auntie who once held a leftie government handout posting we have to feel sorry for her? Incredible stupidity if not actual intent. Greed blinds...
We only have the prisoner's word that she actually had an Internet romance and that this gigolo paid to rearrange her travel itinerary.
But all this is irrelevant, she was caught red-handed attempting to smuggle drugs and that is all the evidence any Court needs to convict her.
Her published comments about corruption in Argentina will not help her.
This case is reminiscent of Phyllis Tarawhiti, the Wainuiomata grandmother sentenced to 35 years prison in Thailand for smuggling $4 million of heroin. She served 11 years before receicing a Royal Pardon.
Tom, internet "romances" are all too common these days, and the odds that this portly, lonely, 54 year old believed the scam, despite the warnings of those around her, are pretty likely. I think it's sad that those same family and friends are now parting with their hard earned money for her legal defence, after she dismissed their warnings. She made her bed, she has to lie in it.
Oh dear. Just read the news story from Sunday that she KNEW there was something secret in the bag, and she thought it was only documents. She's a bureaucrat, she should know that papers don't usually weigh 5kg! What a fool. She's wrecked her daughter's life.
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