SLEEPY EYE — A modern-day con man made away with $1,300 worth of industrial cleaning compounds through a swindle here Oct. 25, it was discovered this week.

Brown County authorities gave the following account:

The con man phoned United Laboratories in Addison, Ill., awhile back, said he was the janitor at St. Mary’s School in Sleepy Eye, and placed a $1,30O order for germicidal cleaner and spray-wipe cleaner.

The company shipped the order in 12 or 13 boxes. Oct. 25 a New Ulm truck driver carrying the load arrived in Sleepy Eye.

The driver, Dennis Harder, told Brown County authorities he had just delivered another order on Main Street in Sleepy Eye when a man approached him and said he was a salesman for United Laboratories.

The ‘salesman’ asked Harder if he had the shipment for St. Mary’s School and even listed the items contained in the shipment.

Harder said yes and the ‘salesman’ said there had been an error and the shipment was supposed to go to another school.

“To save everybody trouble I can take care of it,” the ‘salesman’ told Harder and the boxes were loaded into the man’s car. That was the last anyone saw of him.

When the school got the $1,300 bill United Laboratories was notified that the cleaning compounds had never been ordered or received by the school.

The manufacturer contacted the trucking company which in turn contacted Brown County authorities last Tuesday.

Harder couldn’t remember what the ‘salesman’ looked like and the name the man signed on the trucker’s receipt was fictitious, authorities said.

New Ulm Daily Journal

Nov. 24, 1974