Panhandling - with a twist

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Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
May 11, 2010
Messages
21,565
Location
Charlotte, NC
Display Name
Snorting his way across the USA
About three weeks ago, I was getting some coffee at the store next to the gym at zero dark thirty and when I came out, there was an older man parked next to me in some sort of late model SUV like a Toyota or a Kia or something like that. Not sure which one because they all look the same to me. Nothing way fancy but your standard suburban transport. He said he was running out of gas and he left his wallet at home and asked if he could have a couple dollars to get him home.

Nice old man I thought. Superficially resembled Mr. Rogers, cleanly dressed. Could have been my neighbor. I gave him a couple bucks. Would have given him a few more but I needed a couple bills for the strip club. He thanked me and went on his way. I'd help my neighbor out like that no problem. I'd help anyone out like that no problem. I didn't think anything more of it and went on.

Well guess what. This morning, at zero dark thirty, he was back, but out in front of the gym and not in front of the store. He was stopped in the parking lot, and giving people the same exact story. One lady gave him some money. Another guy blew him off. He was stopped right behind my parking space. I got in my car, and he approached me with the same thing again. I rolled down my window. "I forgot my wallet..."

Uh huh. Yeah, right. Dude. YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE ME DO YOU. But I recognize you. You really should rotate your scam a little bit further from home. Maybe it is far from your home. You wouldn't want to run in to your neighbors pulling that crap would you? I became.... very angry. "YOU SHOOK ME DOWN LAST MONTH. NO!" Then his eyes became wide. Now he recognized me. He walked away.

I was driving down the road to work. I was thinking, gee, maybe I shouldn't have been so hard on the old man. I didn't outright yell at him, but my tone was very angry. Then I thought about it a little more, and concluded that, yes, that was exactly the right thing to do. He needed to know that I was a little bit ****ed off that he shaking people down for money using some concocted but believable story. I'm quite sure he probably gets tens and twenties thrown at him. I'm quite sure he has a venue of different early morning shopping centers that he rotates through.
This guy is not poor or destitute. He probably doesn't need the money. He's getting social security, probably a pension, and even if he needed more money he wasn't so old he couldn't get a job at fast food or as a store clerk or something. Dude, have you no pride at all?

It's probably an illness. Like people that no money problems whatsoever that are caught shoplifting. They do it for the thrill. I don't know, maybe there is a thrill involved with swindling people out of small change. I don't understand the thrill of shoplifting either so I can't really relate.
 
I saw that scam more than 100 times when the Dead played the Greek in Berkeley and I lived half a mile down the street from there.

Except they were young kids. Very hard to sympathize with following a band around while I was working my butt off trying to finish a degree.
 
When I get approached like that I reply that I won't give them money but I will buy whatever they need. Have bought several people meals at fast food restaurants for people who were genuinely needy, and genuinely appreciative. Have had several people say no thanks and walk away.

The best one was in an LAX parking garage some 25 yrs ago. Young man gave me a sob story about how he lost his wallet and plane ticket (this back in the day before tickets were ticketless) and needed $250 or whatever to go see his dying mother and OBTW his brother-in-law was some famous athlete (don't remember who) who would re-pay me $350. I said "I won't give you any money but I will buy your ticket. Let's go inside the terminal." He said "aw, forget it man," turned around and walked away visibly upset that his scam did not work.
 
I was recently filling up the truck and a woman asked me if I could help her out. She had forgot her wallet and they were from out of town and needed gas.

I drive a company truck and use a company card to fill it and to be perfectly honest I do not carry cash. I told her no I couldn't help because I had no cash.

The woman next to her said she could help out with $5 or so and reached for her purse. Seeing she had no cash she offered to swipe her card so the woman could put $5 in her car. After swiping her card she got in her car and left. I watched the woman proceed to fill her tank to the top. ay more than $5.

The whole time the woman is trying to get money for gas the man is sitting in the car. They may have been perfectly legit but I have my doubts.
 
Yeah as a general rule I don't give money to panhandlers, although it isn't an absolute rule. I might depending on the circumstances. I'll tolerate homeless people or those down on their luck, but I hate scammers. Usually scammers are easy to spot but I didn't see this one coming.
 
This is an extremely common scam - often practiced by a family with kids in the car. They're always on hard times, from far enough away that they have to get money for gas, but close enough so that a relatively modest amount would get them there - hence, easily attained from kind-hearted victims.

I hate being hard-hearted, and know that in the process, I surely must be writing off some genuinely-needy folks. Broad brush and all that.

All that said, I bought supper for a putatively-destitute guy last night - he looked legit to me. Was just about to drive away from Popeye's chicken, so I ran in, gave the counter guy a bill and said, buy this guy supper. I was in a hurry.
 
I think I will try that the next time I am at the airport.
I forgot my wallet and need to put some aghast in my plane to make it home.
 
Reminds me of a time I got scammed in New Orleans. Black guy comes up to me and says "I'll bet you a dollar I can tell you where you got your shoes."

I knew I was being scammed somehow but I couldn't figure out where he was going with that, so I accepted the bet. He said "Oh I can't tell you where you bought your shoes, but I can tell you that you got them on your feet!"

It was too good. I forked over two bucks in shame.
 
I don't like it either, but I'd rather have them doing that than robbing people or breaking and entering. At least losing your money this way you can control how much and who it went to.
 
They have been running the gas money scam by me for a while.

I had one a few years back, I was coming out of 7-11 guy tells me his wife was run off the road by a drunk driver and he needs money for the tow truck, neither him or his wife have thier wallets. I ask where his wife is and guy says right down the road about a mile down the road. I tell him he's in luck, that is the way I am going. I say that if I see his wife's car in the ditch with a tow truck that is actually going to be sitting there and waiting, I will give the tow truck the money to get the car out. Guys face dropped! He then started coming up with some BS that maybe she already got pulled out and they might not be there. I respond that if she already got pulled out and left you here that is messed up. I tell him if he wants I will give him a ride home so his wife won't be worried about him standing at 7-11 trying to get money. He says no I'll walk. I ask how far it is, he tells me where, and I say "wow" that's like 10 miles, and you think your wife may have left you here without picking you up, that's pretty messed up. So i say let's try and call her, he says they don't have a phone. So I ask again where his wife was run off the road, he couldn't remember. I thanked him for the entertainment and went on my way. A few nights later I was at my freinds apartment, someone stats banging on the door and yelling. We open the door, and and 3 guys are asking if marvin lives there. We tell them no and what the ef do they want. Guy at door says Yeah, we gave this guy Marvin about $200 to gets his wife's car out of the ditch. I lost it hysterically laughing.
 
Van Johnston said:
When I get approached like that I reply that I won't give them money but I will buy whatever they need. Have bought several people meals at fast food restaurants for people who were genuinely needy, and genuinely appreciative. Have had several people say no thanks and walk away.
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That is how I like to handle the situation. I'd say 80-90% say they want the money instead and I say no. I have bought a few meals, though, and was quite happy to do so.
 
This is really not much different that what our politicians do every election cycle. Try to convince you they need money, lie about what they want it for, then if you're nice enough to give it to them they you up again the next week... and the week after. Always the same person running the same scam, hoping you don't wise up.
 
I've heard of people taking that route because they can make more at it than at a minimum wage job. Dunno how true it is but I could see it.
 
I was in San Diego last November for 3 weeks, the intersections out there look like a MDA boot block. Same people every day.
 
cowman said:
I've heard of people taking that route because they can make more at it than at a minimum wage job. Dunno how true it is but I could see it.
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That's absolutely true, certainly among "professional" panhandlers. But it is work though. It takes skill and effort to sell yourself like that for several hours in a row. The only difference is you aren't performing any beneficial service for anyone. If you were to put that additional marginal effort in to an actual job, you will probably be making more than minimum wage anyway.
 
We have some pros in Dallas that became familiar over time, mostly on my way home from work.After observing them day in day out, patterns emerge.
"Need Help, God Bless" has replaced "Will work for food" in signage.
Partner up to work the intersection in both directions.
The pros are on the the job,on time,every day
Intrusions by other panhandlers at their stoplight is unacceptable.
Service road stop lights are good, they stay red longer.
A pet dog is good for business.
My favorite in my neighborhood is a scruffy looking dude with a damaged leg. As soon as the light turns red, he walks past the stopped cars with such a severe limp you'd think he's not going to make past the next car,with his" God Bless"cardboard. Anybody with a heart would feel sympathy for the guy. I did, until one evening I saw him hop on his bicycle and pedal it a hill that would be tough for physically fit person. That was disgusting to me at first but I did come admire his professionalism .
 
We had the strangest "scam" last week. Long story, but I was bringing my wife home from the hospital, she had surgery and was a little groggy, her phone rang and it was the lady that had just delivered a fruit arrangement to our house. My wife could barely understand her, but she said she had caught some boys with a package that belonged to my wife. Her story was that after she left our house she saw two boys on bikes, about a mile from our house, opening a box, she stopped to investigate. Saw the box contained a purse and asked who it belonged to, they said it was their's. She acted like she was calling the police, the boys dropped the package and rode away. She "discovered" my wife's name and number inside the box and returned it to our house. Of course, my wife had me give her $20 as a reward for her quick thinking and returning the box. :mad2:
The more we thought about it, the more we are sure she stole the damn box and wanted to bring it back for some reason, reward being the motive, I think. If not, it was the biggest coincedence in modern history. :D
 
I don't make a habit of giving money to the people with the signs on the side of the road. There was one guy that was out in the rain without an umbrella and I did give him $5. Was it a scam yeah maybe. But being out in the rain isn't fun and it was a cold rain too. I considered it *entertainment*
 
saracelica said:
I don't make a habit of giving money to the people with the signs on the side of the road. There was one guy that was out in the rain without an umbrella and I did give him $5. Was it a scam yeah maybe. But being out in the rain isn't fun and it was a cold rain too. I considered it *entertainment*
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I might do the same thing if it were raining extra hard or they looked extra pathetic, but I do so with the realization that they may be panhandling under false pretenses. The situation I posted about is a whole new level of delusion though.
 
saracelica said:
I don't make a habit of giving money to the people with the signs on the side of the road. There was one guy that was out in the rain without an umbrella and I did give him $5. Was it a scam yeah maybe. But being out in the rain isn't fun and it was a cold rain too. I considered it *entertainment*
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Place I used to live had a youth center that was funded by donations. The lady that ran the place would occasionally stand in the road by one of the traffic lights (there were 3 on the island) taking donations. But it seemed like she had the worst luck when it came to picking days to collect - she was always out there in the rain looking miserable. I eventually figured out that it wasn't bad luck.
 
Every time you give money to the unfortunate, you are doing exactly what our government is doing, enabling them to be layabouts, except they wont vote for you, they wont do anything for you except lighten your wallet.

I guess it was about seven or eight years ago, there was a well dressed guy, as in clean clothes, with two small kids standing at an intersection on La Jolla Blvd, with the proverbial cardboard sign, "Lost my job, have kids, will work."

Anyway, the local TV decided to do a thing about San Diego's panhandlers, so they went undercover and walked up to the guy claiming they had some yard work for him. He told them in no uncertain terms that he was too busy to work and would only accept cash. Just during the brief interview, three cars handed him folding money. The guy was young, in his thirties, could easily have found a real job, but was making too much money scamming.

Now they don't even bother to ask for work, it's simply "Please Help" or G-d Bless."

-John
 
The best way to handle this is to go visit you local Homeless Shelter or Food bank and request some vouchers, they will usually be free. Basically they are a card with the address and contact information for the organization. If you really want to help make a donation. Then when one of these people approach you give them the card, tell them you support this organization and they will be happy to assist them. 99% of them will already be aware of these organization and will probably throw the card away, but if they really need something these organizations specialize in providing people with what they really need.

Brian
 
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John Baker said:
Every time you give money to the unfortunate, you are doing exactly what our government is doing, enabling them to be layabouts, except they wont vote for you, they wont do anything for you except lighten your wallet.

I guess it was about seven or eight years ago, there was a well dressed guy, as in clean clothes, with two small kids standing at an intersection on La Jolla Blvd, with the proverbial cardboard sign, "Lost my job, have kids, will work."

Anyway, the local TV decided to do a thing about San Diego's panhandlers, so they went undercover and walked up to the guy claiming they had some yard work for him. He told them in no uncertain terms that he was too busy to work and would only accept cash. Just during the brief interview, three cars handed him folding money. The guy was young, in his thirties, could easily have found a real job, but was making too much money scamming.

Now they don't even bother to ask for work, it's simply "Please Help" or G-d Bless."

-John
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brcase said:
The best way to handle this is to go visit you local Homeless Shelter or Food bank and request some vouchers, they will usually be free. Basically they are a card with the address and contact information for the organization. If you really want to help make a donation. Then when one of these people approach you give them the card, tell them you support this organization and they will be happy to assist them. 99% of them will already be aware of these organization and will probably throw the card away, but if they really need something these organizations specialize in providing people with what they really need.

Brian
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I generally agree with that, although there are probably times when someone needs food like real soon or else and they might be dozens of miles from the nearest shelter.
 
The most interesting panhandler I ran across was a few years ago in San Francisco. Was walking down the street, and some guy was pushing a shopping cart with a bunch of plastic bags of stuff in it.

In the top part (where kids sit), he had a box of doughnuts, and asked me if I wanted to buy a doughnut for a dollar?

I said no and kept walking, and then he yelled back, "Well, how about you pay me a dollar, and I'll eat it?"

Although I didn't give him any money, I did have to chuckle at that comeback.
 
cowman said:
I've heard of people taking that route because they can make more at it than at a minimum wage job. Dunno how true it is but I could see it.
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"Minimum wage"? Some of these people can make HUNDREDS in an hour or two.

There was a TV station that once did a hidden-cam stake-out on one of these guys at a freeway ramp. They figured that he made, on average, $5 per cycle of the traffic lights. That's about $120 per hour! They then followed him to a nearby fast food place, where he went into the men's room, where he changed clothes -- then went out, looking like he'd spent the day in an office, hopped into his LEXUS and drove home to one of the better neighborhoods in the area.

There's one gal who has been begging outside the gate at Temple Square in Salt Lake City pretty much every day since about 2006.
 
Some lady, well put together with a rollaboard asked me for 'money for the metro' at the entrance to the metro station at DCA. I happened to have a metro card with me that still hat $6.20 on it which gets you pretty much anywhere in the district during off-peak hours. I was willing to give her the card but she declined, as she needed 'money for the metro' :rolleyes2: .
 
SoloEqs said:
"Minimum wage"? Some of these people can make HUNDREDS in an hour or two.

There was a TV station that once did a hidden-cam stake-out on one of these guys at a freeway ramp. They figured that he made, on average, $5 per cycle of the traffic lights. That's about $120 per hour! They then followed him to a nearby fast food place, where he went into the men's room, where he changed clothes -- then went out, looking like he'd spent the day in an office, hopped into his LEXUS and drove home to one of the better neighborhoods in the area.

There's one gal who has been begging outside the gate at Temple Square in Salt Lake City pretty much every day since about 2006.
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I call BS. I've heard the story a thousand times...it's urban legend. Provide a link to a real story and I'll give it a look. But I'm not buying hearsay of hearsay.

Bet you heard of a lady who microwaved her cat too to dry it off?
 
Captain said:
I call BS. I've heard the story a thousand times...it's urban legend. Provide a link to a real story and I'll give it a look. But I'm not buying hearsay of hearsay. ?
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I see one of our more friendly pan handlers get dropped of at his stand near Walmarts every morning by his wife in their lexus. They drive a better car than I can afford, I know where they live too, it's a bigger house in a better neighborhood than mine too.
 
Captain said:
Don't know...what? Are they really or are you just spewing?
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Me? spewing? I'm simply a independent lost in a democratic state.

If you ran a jackass on the ticket with a "D" behind his name, you'd have him in Olympia for the rest of his life.
 
Tom-D said:
What can I say about a bunch of democrats.
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Here ya go. 'Republican Stronghold'. Now why would you paint that as a 'bunch of democrats'?

Oak Harbor is the nearest city to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Its influence on the area has established Oak Harbor as a stronghold for American conservatism and the Republican Party.

~ Oak Harbor Wikipedia page
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And that's why I dislike the right. Do bad stuff and blame blame blame the other side. Hypocrites.
 
Tom-D said:
Me? spewing? I'm simply a independent lost in a democratic state.

If you ran a jackass on the ticket with a "D" behind his name, you'd have him in Olympia for the rest of his life.
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Thought I'd quote that and lock it in. Bet you wish you saw the next post before you hit submit...
 
Captain said:
Here ya go. 'Republican Stronghold'. Now why would you paint that as a 'bunch of democrats'?

And that's why I dislike the right. Do bad stuff and blame blame blame the other side. Hypocrites.
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Yep, we have one senator in Olympia. That makes us a strong hold. and she won by a very narrow margin, only because her opponent had a sex predator husband who like to pet the help on their butts.

When you are following Wa. State politics don't believe what you read on the internet. It was probably written by a democrat.
 
Tom-D said:
Yep, we have one senator in Olympia. That makes us a strong hold. and she won by a very narrow margin, only because her opponent had a sex predator husband who like to pet the help on their butts.

When you are following Wa. State politics don't believe what you read on the internet. It was probably written by a democrat.
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We're not discussing how many Senators you get. We're discussing you blaming a law on democrats that was written in a 'Republican Stronghold'

It's Wikipedia...if you don't like it change it. If its BS someone else will change it back.
 
brcase said:
The best way to handle this is to go visit you local Homeless Shelter or Food bank and request some vouchers, they will usually be free. Basically they are a card with the address and contact information for the organization. If you really want to help make a donation. Then when one of these people approach you give them the card, tell them you support this organization and they will be happy to assist them. 99% of them will already be aware of these organization and will probably throw the card away, but if they really need something these organizations specialize in providing people with what they really need.

Brian
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This is a good thing. I work (volunteer) at a food pantry giving clothes to the needy. The scam artists come in sometimes, but mostly the people we help really are desperate. They are screened and gifts are rationed.

BTW, a food bank collects food from stores and other providers. It is a large collection point. Individual food pantries receive a portion of the food from the bank and do the distributions in small local store fronts.
 
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