
The Big Cow Con - Petiver
https://story.californiasunday.com/rocky-pipkin-agricultural-detective
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deckar01
This would be an interesting plot for a season of True Detective. The
progression of events fits nicely with the dual timeline structure of the
first season.

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squozzer
Whooda thunk agriculture was so ripe (pardon the expression) for scamming?

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jessaustin
ISTM this was due more to the windfall situation than to agriculture
specifically. The marks happened to be farmers, but what made them marks was
the fact that they had more money than they knew what to do with. That is, I
wouldn't be surprised to see a similar story about the Dakotas in the years
before the oil price dropped.

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mst
How bizarre, as soon as I scroll down past the subtitle the entire page goes
white and never comes back. Happens whether I drag the scrollbar, use the down
key, use the page down key, or swipe on the touchscreen as well.

(latest firefox on windows 8 on a thinkpad tablet 2 in case anybody's curious)

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tamana
Is there a summary version of this story without all the "long form" padding
about the color of everyone's hair and dirt?

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deckar01
TLDR; The South African man Arno comes to the US in 1999. He cons millions
from farmers and rich women. He eludes the FBI and a private investigator in
2008. He flees to South Africa in 2009 with his brother, the leader of an
organized poaching ring. In 2011 Arno and his brother's poaching ring are
caught by local authorities in South Africa.

There are lots of interesting bits of California agricultural history between
the plot points.

