On way back from Silver City, I stopped for gas and food at an I-10 Truck Stop. Young man walked over and asked me for money 'cause he didn't have enough gasoline to get home.

I noticed he was holding an Iphone, so I offered him $20 for his Iphone.

He walked away.

I thought the offer was good.

Ha! That's awesome.

I hate being approached by able-bodied adults asking for money. Most of them look like tweakers. Men and women both. What a waste.

I had someone say that to me at a Circle K and told her I had no cash. I was expecting to see her hassling others but she walked over to her car at a pump and just kind of stood there looking really upset. I walked over and asked her if i could put some gas in her tank using my CC and she gratefully said yes.

Sometimes, not often, they are honest

Many years ago after being transferred to a place in Atlanta, I ran into a guy who was also transferred there from where we both originally worked.
He said hi and asked him if I could give him some money for him and his family to eat and get a motel room.
I told him, I could do better than that, I would take them to the restaurant and break bread with them and allow them to sleep on the floor of our apartment tonight for free.

He said, no we need the money. I gave him $25, my two roomates turned and got away in a hurry.

He gave the money back and told me he knew all 3 of us professed to be Christians and he wanted to find out if any of us really were.
My buddies were really ticked off...not sure at who?

I've been approached a couple of times at rest stops on the interstate highways by people begging for gas money. I gave a chick some gas using my CC once but all the rest I've told them I don't have any money and can't help them. In most cases just a scam and no different than people holding signs on corners claiming to be homeless and hungry

I drive the same route a lot to visit one of our largest customers. Once I had pumped gas and was in the drive thru window at the attached Arbys for a sandwich. Guy walks up fairly clean cut and well dressed and said he was a minister and had been to visit an out of area hospital patient and realized his wallet was at home. I gave him twenty bucks. Felt good about it.

Couple of months later I stopped at same place and the same guy walked up while I was pumping gas and started same story.

I said Pastor you pull your car up here and I will feel it up. He walked away and started telling same story to some one else.

What pisses me off is I am afraid that someday I will miss the opportunity to really help someone because assholes have made me so cynical.

This begging is going on @ rest areas also.
I was approached as I was walking to the men's room. I turned the table on the panhandler 1st and asked him if he had any money he could spare. He said me NO! I said ok, I'll ask inside.

quote:

What pisses me off is I am afraid that someday I will miss the opportunity to really help someone because assholes have made me so cynical.

This for sure. I will always help someone who does right, but for whatever reason has had bad luck. It's just hard to figure out which ones are actually deserving.

If someone asks me for money for food I will offer to buy them lunch/dinner. I will never give cash. Do you know how many times they say yes to free food after begging for money for food? I'm not sure the exact percentage, but it's around or less than 1 in 4.

I would like to, but never have and probably won't, follow one of these motherfuckers home and see what kind of car they drive and house they live in. Probably better than mine. Alternatively, maybe I should take panhandling up. A tradesman on piece work, I didn't even make $50 today.

quote:

Originally posted by germandogs:

What pisses me off is I am afraid that someday I will miss the opportunity to really help someone because assholes have made me so cynical.

That's damn straight.

Fake pregnant women panhandling

"She was telling me they can make about $200 in an hour and a half to two hours"

"Oh, yeah, people just hand me $20 out the window. Without the belly, I don’t make nearly as much money"

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/9-i...anhandling/523582207

I beat them to the punch and ask them for money as they are opening their mouth on the approach. Surprisingly many of them have given me money. Or I ask them for their Dept of Corrections number. 100% of panhandlers that I have asked, have had a DOC number. Yes, 100%.

The worst was when I was working in Winslow, literally right next to the Navajo Rez. My vehicle at the time didn't have a bigger enough gas tank to make the round trip and I'd have to fill up in Winslow before leaving.

The station I gassed up at was always busy, lines to get a pump and almost always beggars outside. One time while waiting in line I noticed a car at the pump with a family inside that wasn't using the pump. The "father" would jump out any time a car drove up, go on with his sob story of being out of gas, and offer to move his car for $5 so the pump would be accessible.

I was almost tempted to stick around watch one of the local rednecks put their truck in 4 low and moves vehicle for him.

I was asked for money by a young white woman, well dressed and apparently healthy. Her reason seemed "legit", but I figured the chances of that were slim to none, as they usually are. But she was polite and didn't hold me up. I asked her a couple questions and gave her some good cash. I thought either 1) she was really in a bind without cash because of poor planning or a run of bad luck, or, 2) she was a new addict, not having had enough time to visibly physically degrade as they do. Either way I was good with it. She couldn't have been more than in her early to mid 20's.

Really old scam.

Was driving from Ft. Hood to Dallas. A bit south of Fort Worth is a rest stop. Park and notice a group, 3-4 adults, 5-6 kids. they are running up to cars and apparently are cleaning windows for donations. As I exit my vehicle, I get hit up.

They are from Georgia - and are trying to get to their aunts or grandmothers or somebody's funeral in California - and need gas money. Can they clean my car windows for whatever cash I care to contribute.

No. And I told them do not touch my car - because I could see them jumping on unattended cars - then approaching the owners as they returned to their vehicles - using the guilt factor.

I used the restroom, then returned to my vehicle. I noticed that only about half of them at any given time were working the crowd. I got curious. They were at the picnic table, breaking out coolers full of food and drink - and having a seemingly great time. So I sat there about 20 minutes, observing. I saw beer bottles.

Finally, I walked up to the adults at the table, and asked them where they were headed. Going to California, funeral, female family member, ran short of gas money - but they are not bums or beggars - they are willing to work - cleaning windows.

I ask them if they are from Georgia - or wherever, why do they have Texas tags on their truck (pickup truck with a camper shell on back). And that I bet their drivers licenses were Texas drivers licenses, too. And that if they didn't confess their sins, I'd have the State Police out there in short order and they positively would get to the bottom of it.

They admitted it was a scam. Load the kids up on Saturday morning in the beater truck, fill it with the party picnic, and hit up a rest stop as window washers and make bank using some sob story about running out of gas. It was how they made their living. About $800 in 5-6 hours, easily. This was the early 1980's, and they were cutting edge scumbags.

Saw them a number of times over the next few years. There was even an article in the newspaper about them at one time.

As panhandlers or beggars approach me, I look them straight in the eye. As soon as they begin their pitch, I say "No", surgically. Any dumb enough to persist, insist or follow me - and I face off with them and remind them I said no - and now they are threatening my peace of mind and unless they have an ass kicking in their day planner, they had better step off. I have a 100% success rate to date.

The ones at intersections will never get a dime from me. Not when I see them for month after months over several intersections around town. the ones I really can't stand are able bodied males that are hoping to inspire pity. I will watch them starve in a hole before I toss them a bread crumb to fund their drug habit.

If idiots ignored these losers, they would be forced to seek assistance through legitimate organizations - that they seek to avoid - because then they can't hustle stolen property, be drunk or high and use the charity services - they have no interest in a job or anything that might require work or monitoring or effort. I have nothing for them.

IMO, people who hand these vermin money are not the brightest bulbs.

I wish I had faith in humanity, but I wont give anyone money or help, especially if I'm with my family. Then I wont likely even listen to their story, for fear it's simply a distraction.

In today's age of cell phones, Apple Pay, etc, there are a multitude of ways to get money transferred, paid, etc.

Does that make me an asshole? Probably, but with the number of suckers around, it wont be long until one of them is along to give away some $$$.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevmo:
I had someone say that to me at a Circle K and told her I had no cash. I was expecting to see her hassling others but she walked over to her car at a pump and just kind of stood there looking really upset. I walked over and asked her if i could put some gas in her tank using my CC and she gratefully said yes.

Sometimes, not often, they are honest

You're a good man for doing that, Kevmo.

Hopefully she never forgot and paid it forward.

No way in hell will I ever give money to a panhandler. It pisses me off when I see a handful of cash come out of a car window in a high traffic intersection.

I bought a meal at Subway one time for a couple because they asked for food, rather than money.

I have been replaying in my head a wish for a "do over" situation. I was exiting an offsite meeting at a hotel and a guy in the parking lot had a sob story about his car running out of gas on the nearby freeway; he was collecting enough money to buy a plastic can and gas. His wife and kids were supposedly waiting in the car.

Had I to do it over again, I wish I would have said, "I can definitely help! My buddy is a local cop. Let me give him a call. I'm sure he can help provide assistance to a stranded motorist." ..while whipping out my cell phone... I would like to see the reaction to this!

Here's my favorite parking lot beggar story.

I am in oil and gas so we are at 24/7/365 business. We had an emergency on the Fourth of July and my buddy had to go into our downtown office to check records. He is the only vehicle in the parking lot and a guy wearing a construction hard hat and an orange safety vest comes up to him with a broken fan belt. He said his vehicle broke down on the way to a job site and he needs money for the fan belt. My body was 99% sure it was BS, but since he was the only car in the parking lot he did not want to get his car vandalized so he gave him money for a fan belt.

Fast forward a couple years, and I meeting my buddy and another guy for dinner at the downtown Kim Son. My buddy arrived in the parking lot about the same time I did and pulled into a different section of the parking lot. We're inside waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for him, and he finally comes in with a huge grin on his face. In between parking his car and the front door a guy in a hard hat and an orange construction vest approaches him with a broken fan belt. My buddy angrily informs that he need a new schtick because he already pulled the scam on him a couple years before. The panhandler is so flustered that he turns around and runs without looking into downtown Houston rush hour traffic and narrowly missed getting run over.

Comedy. Five survival phrases for Foreigners visiting NYC. Dude is funny, but needs some polish. Tells you how to deal with stepping on people's shoes, being asked for money etc.