I'm stranded... Gimmie free stuff

[Anakah]

So its a busy weekend and this lady comes to my window and further drops my faith in humanity.

SC: I'm stranded here, can I get a buffet comp?

Me: Uh, not here that would be the ace play... but I don't think they can just give you a comp. Do you have any play on your card?

SC: No! I don't play here!

Me: well... I don't think they can help you then.

SC: Whatever!

Why should we give her a free buffet just because she got herself stranded? I wasn't too sure exactly how "stranded" she was but not enough to be homeless or starving.

[Seshat]

SC: I'm stranded here...

.... that's what travel insurance is for.

[taxguykarl]

I've seen panhandlers with signs claiming that they were stranded--one for two years. Definitely a scammer

[bhskittykatt]

When I worked at Hotel 4+2, I got these all the time. Sorry, we're a business, not a charity. Your car broke down literally on the other side of the fence and you're from out-of-state? I'll cut a sweet deal. Your someone I can legitly recognize as homeless and it's freezing out and you only have $40? I'll cut you a sweet deal. You come in with a police officer who has literally spent the last two hours finding out every emergency housing shelter is full? I'll cut a sweet deal. You come in wanting free stuff just based on your word? GTFO! Even the lady with her family that came in with the officer was willing to pay something.

[dalesys]

AKA "I bet all my get home money on sure things."

[cleorose]

Its a common scam. People near military bases will open their car hoods and claim to be broken down after visiting their soldier and they have to get home to "insert far away place" or they claim to be a wife of a soldier or husband of a soldier who is deployed. They have no way to get back home etc. Can we spare a few dollars for cab ride /tow / a hotel til they get enough money to get home / greyhound.

I have seen about 30 variations of the above scam. We were in Manhattan and had a woman claiming she needed to get home to Salina. Well we lived in Abilene and Salina was only 20 miles out of our way. So why not hop in and we give you a lift.

NO THANKS

Didnt matter that we had two kids and myself and hubby. They only want $$ or freebies.

Hubby is a mechanic and offered to take a look at their car to see if it was something like a slipped belt or hose that could be fixed easy and cheap. She wouldn't even turn on her car.

So yeah scammers be everywhere.

[MoonCat]

Yeah, that's a common theme of the panhandlers here. "Excuse me, miss, I came into the city from [insert rural town] to meet my buddy/girlfriend/boyfriend/whoever and they stood me up, and I'm short by $1.46 to get home..." Or some variation of this. Always some weird random amount of money, no doubt hoping that the mark will just round up and hand over $5 or something.

[Argabarga]

That occasionally happened around here after football games, guy would come up to you and explain his car was out of gas/had a bad battery, and he just needed $10 and then he'd have enough to get started and get home to the usual really sick wife/baby/whatever.

Offers of jumper cables or free rides to nearest gas station since lead-acid batteries and cartons of liquids were unwieldy things to try and carry around and would certainly delay your speedy return to that sick family were always turned down, see, he didn't want to "trouble" you, he just wanted that $10 and he'd do the work.

Turning him down a second time usually resulted in you being called an "asshole" or "racist" depending on your ethnicity, and he'd shuffle off to his next mark

[MadMike]

I had someone knocking at my door just before midnight awhile back. I guess he saw my light was on and figured someone was awake. I opened the door just a crack, and there was a guy telling me he lived by a certain ball field in my area, and he was just about out of gas, and could I spare a few bucks so he could get home.

I wanted to tell him to fuck off, or at least point out that the field he claimed to live by was close enough to easily walk back to, but I didn't want to antagonize him since he knew where I lived. I took the safe approach and told him I didn't have any cash in the house.

[Pagan]

There was a guy hitting up all and sundry for 75 cents over a ABQ Uptown when I was over there a while back. His story was that he was out of gas and just needed it to get to a gas station. Wasn't aware the cars can run on change. Oh, and he had and was using a cell phone....

[mathnerd]

So I'm currently chilling in a random city hundreds of miles away from anybody I know. I have minor car trouble. There's vapor lock in the radiator...I was okay nursing it through the cold night air, but wasn't willing to do the kind of climbing I need to do to get to my destination in the warmer daytime air until the engine has a chance to completely cool and I can confirm that's all that's wrong with the car. The only thing I asked the hotel desk clerk? Did he mind if I parked my car in the parking lot and walked somewhere with the kids and the dogs until check in time? Even though it was only 7:30AM, super amazing and awesome desk clerk found an open room and checked us in, and even made sure we had breakfast, even though that's technically for last night's guests (I was planning on walking to McDonalds). He even gave me a little bit of a break on the rate, which I didn't ask for, but hey, ten bucks is ten bucks. I'll take it if it's offered. I can't imagine asking for anything other than "what's the best rate you have?".

[Mr Hero]

I had to make a late night trip to Walgreens for cough medicine. Outside was a guy asking for money for the bus. I told him I didn't have any money, but what I do have is some passes that are just as good if that's all he needed. Funny, I still don't know why he'd turn down that generous offer.

[drjonah]

I had to make a late night trip to Walgreens for cough medicine. Outside was a guy asking for money for the bus. I told him I didn't have any money, but what I do have is some passes that are just as good if that's all he needed. Funny, I still don't know why he'd turn down that generous offer.

Sounds like a former friend of mine who kept trying to hit me up for cash. When she tried whining that she just started her period (of course she conveniently forgot she pulled the same story with me just SEVEN days ago). She whined that she needed cash because she was bleeding all over the place. I tried telling her I had no money but I would gladly give her a ride to the pharmacy to get her some products. NOPE, had to be cash, cold hard cash, nothing else would be accepted.

She tried telling me that she was too embarrassed to go anywhere because she was bleeding but then proceeded to beg me for a ride to someone else's house so THEY could give her cash. Uh huh sure, nice try

[Shyla]

There was a guy on NJ Transit train a week ago begging for money to get to the farthest destination for that train. I didn't give him money but I was impressed. He never offered a reason and kept his voice sincere sounding and not too loud. You actually sound less like a liar if you don't embellish. I bet someone fell for it.

[infinitemonkies]

I've commented before about seeing the same panhandler every day for a year with a sign that says he's stranded, need money for a bus ticket - OOO! just thought of something, my brother does graphic design, I should get him a really nice professional made sign with lights and music

Anyway, My father had this experience a couple days after new years: He was filling up at a gas station, when a young man approached him with a polite and earnest yet sob story: stranded, heartbroken, blah blah blah, 4 bucks short for bus ticket to city 6 hours away.
As it happened, my father was heading there that day, he offered the young man a lift; And got punched in the face for his offer of charity.
(He wasn't hurt, just surprised. Gas station got in on video, cops called, report given, never heard anything come of it.)

Similarly, I see many panhandlers with crude signs saying they haven't eat in days, etc. I recently started helping out at a nearby foodbank/kitchen, and was (slightly) surprised to learn this city has over a DOZEN soup kitchens in the downtown area, and not one of them turns someone away empty-handed, or empty-stomached.