The Record reports that a mattress salesperson with a very questionable history, is prowling senior citizens club in Canada, pitching a magnetic mattress that promises to relieve different health conditions. The salesperson and is selling these between $1,800 to $2,800 when it can be bought from suppliers at $40-$80.

Thorsten Wietschel sprang for a free schnitzel lunch this week for about 30 people, mostly senior citizens, at the Schwaben Club. Then he launched into a two-hour “private lecture” on the wonders of mattress covers fitted with magnets –priced from $1,800 to $2,800 — to help with everything from incontinence to strokes. “It’s not snake oil and we are not fly-by-night,” Wietschel said in an interview before his presentation.

His talk went over well with the people in attendance, who were told they would be contacted by sales representatives after filling out forms with their names, addresses, telephone numbers and dates of birth.

“I’m convinced what he said is true,” said Dan Truong, 65, who stayed behind to ask questions. “His explanation, his presentation, is good, reasonable, logical.”

But a similar sales approach by Wietschel didn’t impress police or consumer protection agencies in Arizona and California.

Then using the pseudonym Sven Kugler, Wietschel was charged with commercial burglary and grand theft by police in Glendale, Calif., in 2003. The charges followed an undercover operation that included hidden cameras to record his pitch after a free lunch for seniors at a popular restaurant.

John Genna, a Glendale police officer, got calls from authorities for months afterwards as Wietschel moved through California and into other states.

Genna said he also spoke to dozens of elderly people who paid $700 or more for covers that Wietschel had purchased from suppliers for $40 to $80.

“It was heartbreaking,” said Genna. “This guy feeds off of people’s desperation and last hopes.”

Wietschel was so persuasive, he said, that customers were still trying to give him cheques to buy covers while police were arresting him in the restaurant.

The charges never went to court after Wietschel left the state and couldn’t be found again.

Genna also acknowledged it would have been difficult to prove the charges in court because of grey areas in consumer laws and the need to call expert evidence on the effects of magnets.

Read more of this news after this jump…

Tags: health_claims, magnetic mattress, MATTRESS News, mattress-salesperson, mattress-scam, mattress-sham, senior_citizens_club, Thorsten-Wietschel

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 10:23 am and is filed under MATTRESS News.
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