Winter in Manhattan Odyssey: Pius

"The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly.  Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive."                                                                                                                            Eckhart Tolle

 Two days after I had made the decision to put my Dream into action, and started sending out countless requests on places, I woke early and couldn’t sleep anymore.  As it was Saturday, I decided to get up, do a bit of writing, and figured I’d get a nap in later.  (I love naps.  I think we should adopt the European custom of siestas in the U.S.).  But before I started writing, I had to check my emails to see if any interesting options had come my way ala Meg Ryan in one of my all-time favorite movies “You’ve Got Mail”, although I wasn’t, and am not looking for a secret love affair, well, not with a person anyway..but with a city.. That’s not a new story, is it?.

This is the email I woke up to (I have lost the pictures of the "interior of the apartment" that he sent): 

The Building @ 205 E 16th Street Thanks for your interest in my apartment. I am a professional piano/music theory teacher, I'm easy going and friendly. I like Music and have deep interest in traveling. I respect every religion and love to hang around with people and i am definitely not a trouble maker and very helpful in nature. I am currently living in London - UK  and I will be here for long that is why am looking for a clean and responsible person to live in my apartment. The apartment is located at:   205 E 16th St , New York, NY 10003, United States   Its a spacious and lovely 1 Bedroom,1 Bathroom fully furnished apartment with utilities included and pets are allowed. The apartment is currently empty and you will be the only occupant to live in the whole apartment. I want you to know that I am a kind and honest man and I spent a lot on my property that you are interested in renting, so I will solicit for your absolute maintenance of the apartment and I would want you to treat it as your own, I would like you to keep it tidy always and I also want you to let me have trust in you as I always stand on my word, the rental fees is $1000 per month including utilities and the damage deposit is $500. First month rent and deposit is require to move in.   I know you will be wondering why the rent is so cheap. Well I am not after the money, what am after is the welfare of my property. I will like you to drive by today to view the exterior of the building for you to know where the apartment is located and get back to me so that I can forward the full interior pictures to you to have an idea how beautiful and spacious the inside looks and we can proceed to the application form. I look forward to hearing from you. Regards Pius

For the rest of the day, emails went back and forth.  Pius had given a phone number which could not be reached.   Pius desperately wanted me to "rent his place", and wire him money (do not, ever, wire money anymore..)  My Daughter actually went to the building and spoke to the Doorman to discover he had never heard of this person.  Huge scam.  Big lesson learned, again, this time never to be ignored.  If it sounds too good to be true, IT IS!