Nightmare carpenters con pensioner (Norway)

Aftenposten ^ | March 16, 2005 | tr. Jonathan Tisdall

[franksolich]

Nightmare carpenters con pensioner

A 69-year-old woman who thought she was hiring professional carpenters to do some construction got a band of criminals led by an Estonian pimp.

Ragna Hjelle's nightmare began when she found an ad in the newspaper for a carpentry firm. She wanted professional help to finish the renovation of a basement apartment that she had begun with her partner Jonas, who passed away suddenly last year.

Hjelle called the number in the ad and "a friendly Norwegian" paid her a visit, newspaper Bergens Tidende reports. "He had some able lads that could help me at a reasonable price," Hjelle told the paper.

The crew turned out to be four Estonians led by a 42-year-old man now in Bergen Prison, doing time for large-scale pimping and procurement.

"They were here a few weeks, drank coffee in my kitchen. I got assurances that they knew their stuff, one of them was an trained electrician they said," Hjelle remembered. She paid over NOK 40,000 (USD 6,500) for their work, and has been paying ever since to undo what they did.

When they finished and left Hjelle soon found out that they had done far more damage than good. Wooden strips dangled, paneling was crooked and splintered and the wiring behind the carpentry was even worse.

The electrical work was under legal standards and even hazardous.

"I got a shock when I saw what was hidden in the wall. The hadn't used the cable (I bought them) but stolen my husband's old extension cord. The inspector said that I would have been a dead woman if I had done weeding in the flower bed," Hjelle said.

In the days to come Hjelle found out that some of her partner's tools had been stolen and that the head carpenter had been arrested in Bergen's biggest ever raid on pimps.

A later newspaper article revealed that the carpenters' van had been used to steal over three tons of clothes from the Salvation Army.

The 69-year-old widow has resigned herself to her economic losses, but remains bitter than most of the gang has gotten away.

[franksolich]

Man, something has got to be done about all these eastern Europeans who think the west is a vast playground in which they can do whatever they wish.

I am not speaking only about the criminal activities of the "Russian mafia" here in the United States, but it appears Norway too has a problem--Poles trying to smuggle in liquor (but getting caught by wary Norwegian border guards), Georgians selling women, and now Estonians not only selling women but also doing lousy carpentry work.

The Norwegians, by the way, are much better than we are here, in deporting undesirable elements--it is possible Norway (not to be confused with "Sweden" or "Old Europe") is the least "Moslem-friendly" country in Europe, the way they boot those guys out of the fjords.

But perhaps they should pay some more attention to some others, too.....

[WOSG]

FWIW, I saw a US TV show ("dateline" style) where these remodelling-type scams were happening in the US...
you think you are getting a construction crew, but you've 'hired' a gang of thieves.

lesson: be careful who you let into your house.

[politicket]

"I got a shock when I saw what was hidden in the wall"

That's not good!

[franksolich]

Ping for the Norway ping list.



By the way, I just found out something, purely by accident; it appears we here on Free Republic are not getting only remarkable English translations from the Norwegian, but extraordinary.

I got a thing in the mail from an old friend, Rauf Aliovsadzade, currently of Nebraska, but once of Azerbaijan, where he was a chess champion of some sort.

Among the list of currently-famous chess players (besides Rauf himself, a true gentleman and an accomplished musician with stringed instruments), is listed none other than.....Jonathan Tisdall of Oslo, Norway.

Yeah, the one who translates from the Aftenposten for us.

The Norway ping list is touched by fame, and we are flattered.

[franksolich]

One wonders if she wanted to do it on the cheap, and hired these foreigners, rather than honest Norwegian workingmen who might have charged a little bit more, but delivered.

[dennisw]

The new book "Collapse" by Jared Diamond has some very good chapters on the Norwegians, the Vikings and their settlements in Greenland, Iceland, Orkney, Shetland, Faroe, and other places. The Vikings really got around

[franksolich]

Well, so far we've been illuminated that the Vikings founded Russia (something some of us sort of already knew), got as far as the eastern shore of the Black Sea, and perhaps maybe possibly speculatively got as far as Minnesota.

The problem however is differentiating between the "good" Vikings who brought civilization with them, and the "bad" Vikings who merely pillaged and burned.

[dennisw]

The Viking began as pagans. A favorite easy score for them was to sack a monastery and other Christian landmarks with valuables.

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-08%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=lindisfarne+sacked+vikings

[franksolich]

But they sacked them--one assumes we are talking about Swedish or Danish Vikings here, and not Norwegian Vikings--not because they were Christian, but because it was common in those times to store valuable items in such places, besides that such places had valuable items to begin with.

One goes where the money is.

[Eurotwit]

Leftist propaganda...


They were merely "protecting" valuable relics :-)

Cheers.

[franksolich]

By the way, wasn't it sort of "low," for the Estonians to steal from.....Salvation Army used-clothing drop-boxes?

[Eurotwit]

Furthermore, the local monk said that they brought it upon themselves due their sinful behaviour.

SO, there :-)

[Cicero]

The moral of the story is, don't hire an Estonian pimp to redo your kitchen.

[franksolich]

I think she was just trying to get the work done on the cheap--and one gets what one pays for.

<<when has to hire labor around this farmhouse, hires local labor and Hispanics with green cards; never disappointed.

[Eurotwit]

I saw that. It almost made me smile. The whole story reminds me of bad sitcom episode. Poor woman though. Thankfully, she is still alive.

Another old woman who was IN the salvation army, was not so lucky, and was cut open and slayed with a knife and axes:

"Sunday, 22 June, 2003: Two Libyan asylum seekers, charged in the murder of an elderly Norwegian Salvation Army worker last weekend, were arrested in Stockholm Friday. Norwegian police had launched an international manhunt for the pair. Sarahad Binjassem Najli (photo/right), 31, and Yusuf Imran Ishtan (photo/left), 34, were arrested in downtown Stockholm by Swedish police. The younger of the two also was convicted of murder in Libya, and used his conviction as grounds for seeking asylum in Norway because he faced the death penalty at home. [Aftenposten] "

http://www.libya1.com/news/n2003/june/0603nwsc.htm

[franksolich]

Do you know if those two Libyans were among the 17 Libyans recented deported by the always-watchful Norwegian immigration authorities--remember, the thugs who had to be bodily dragged onto the airplane, and then dumped in Khadaffiland?

[franksolich]

Do you know if those two Libyans were among the 17 Libyans recently deported by the always-watchful Norwegian immigration authorities--remember, the thugs who had to be bodily dragged onto the airplane, and then dumped in Khadaffiland?

[PLMerite]

"Estonian Pimp"

Dibs for a band name.

[Eurotwit]

Here is the 83 year woman that they murdered. As far as I know, they are serving jail time in Norway. The one to the right serving 18 years, and the other serving 5. Assuming current practice is upheld, they will be guaranteed residency permit afterwards, and and ample supply of government welfare funds.

[franksolich]

Ouch.

I take it Norway is one of those many countries that does not extradite criminals facing capital punishment elsewhere (sort of like what some of the blue states do here), and that for some peculiar reason, the maximum prison term in Norway for murder is 21 years?

Not a situation to endure long; I am confident that Norwegians will recover their senses. Not today, not tomorrow, not next week, but sometime in the near future.