Manama: A beggar who used a 3D drawing to dupe victims in Kuwait and make them believe she was suffering from a rotting leg and needed to undergo urgent surgery has been arrested.
The woman, reportedly from a Gulf country, claimed that she had one leg that had been amputated and that she planned to treat her second leg at a hospital in Egypt.
A Kuwaiti victim said the woman rang the bell of their home and claimed that she had lost one leg and did not want to lose the second one.
He added that he believed her when he saw the “rotting” leg and gave her KD190.
However, he felt cheated when he later heard stories circulating in Kuwait about a woman begging using a 3D-drawing to pretend she was about to lose her leg, Kuwaiti daily Al Rai reported on Monday.
The victim said he met the beggar another time as he was sitting with friends at a diwaniya, the traditional majlis attached to a house in Kuwait, and she came to them, making the same claims and showing her “rotting” leg.
Recognising her, he got into an argument with her and explained that she was deceiving Kuwaitis to take money from them.
The beggar reportedly fled the diwaniya, and the Kuwaiti posted his story on social media to warn Kuwaitis against her.
Begging is forbidden in Kuwait and in the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Kuwait had warned of a zero-tolerance approach to begging in the country and has steadily deported foreigners caught asking for money.
Deported beggars are not be allowed back into Kuwait under any circumstances and the sponsors of people caught begging have been warned that they will not be allowed to sponsor anyone in Kuwait regardless of the reasons.
