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Vent: lying "Travelling, no money to get to location X" panhandler

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  • Vent: lying "Travelling, no money to get to location X" panhandler

    This has been pissing me off for a while now. There's a panhandler in my area who moves between three shoping centers and likes to sit at intersections with his dog and a sign saying "Trying to get to "location X" - no money, I'm hungry and so is my dog. Please help."

    Location X changes daily - he's been doing this for over a year now. It just gets my goat that he's depending on people "helping him out" when he's obviously not traveling anywhere. He tries to hit me up whenever I'm shopping, and I simply give the dog a biscuit (I keep some in my car) and say "Oh so you just got back from Location X / Location Y / Location Z? You sure travel a lot for a homeless guy don't you?" He usually slinks off.

    Jerk.
    The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.

  • #2
    Yeah, we've got a panhandling couple in our area that have been trying to get to (insert state here) for over 5-years! They sure haven't made it very far, but that's maybe because they keep camping in the woods around local businesses, getting busted for being drunk and panhandling, and ending-up in jail.

    Hee, you have an awesome way of dealing with yours; you think he'd recognize you by now!
    "If anyone wants this old box containing the broken bits of my former faith in humanity, I'll take your best offer now. You may be able to salvage a few of em' for parts..... " - Quote by Argabarga

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    • #3
      The classic angle is that they're trying to get to (insert random destination here) and that if they just had a couple more bucks, they'd be leaving your town for good.

      I think that's Panhandling 101.

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      • #4
        We get that here all the time. "Excuse me, ma'am, I came into town to meet my brother/sister/girlfriend/boyfriend/son/daughter/random stranger I met on the internet [take your pick] but they stood me up and I'm 87 cents short of the bus fare I need to get home. Can you help me?" I'm sure they come up with amounts like that because most people would figure hell, it's easier to just give them a dollar than to count out that change (or they don't have change).

        Last time a guy tried this with me, I stopped him about three words in and said, "I've heard this one before." He said "okay, I get it, never mind," and wandered off.
        When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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        • #5
          we have ones that claim to have 4 or 5 kids to feed. I am so tempted to call cps, but I don't think they actually have kids so I don't want to waste CPS's time.
          Interviewer: What is your greatest weakness?
          Me: I expect competence from my coworkers.

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          • #6
            Quoth gremcint View Post
            we have ones that claim to have 4 or 5 kids to feed. I am so tempted to call cps, but I don't think they actually have kids so I don't want to waste CPS's time.
            If they do, chances are CPS already has them.
            Here in Chicago, there was a lady whose sign claimed her wallet was stolen from an Amtrak train...needs cash to get back. Mrs. TGK pointed out that her makeup is nearly perfect. Either a liar or lousy priorities...especially considering that she's been at her station (for want of a better term) for about a year and a half.
            I'm trying to see things from your point of view, but I can't get my head that far up my keister!

            Who is John Galt?
            -Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

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            • #7
              Ugh, panhandlers. My day isn't complete until someone hits me up for money (my record is four different people hitting me up for money in fifteen minutes).

              There was one woman who claimed to be pregnant. Her "pregnancy" lasted a good three years.
              I question my sanity every day. Sometimes it answers.

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              • #8
                What is fun are the ones that work as a group. You see them dropped off in a van at different corners and changing shifts.
                "Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are your own fears." – Rudyard Kipling

                I don't have hot flashes. I have short, private vacations to the tropics.

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                • #9
                  I can't go anywhere without someone hitting me up for money these days. I can be sitting at the bus stop and someone will ask me for bus fare, then after I tell them no, they sit down and wait for a bus. They didn't need the damned fare!

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                  • #10
                    I had the same person hit me up on 2 different days, same parking lot, same 'car out of gas' story. I just told her she'd already tried that on me the day before, and walked away.
                    That is so full of suck Dyson doesn't know how they did it - shankyknitter

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                    • #11
                      I got hit up for gas money one night while at a drive thru, I said "I have gas station credit card, meet me over there in a few and ill buy you a few bucks worth of gas.".. He drove off.
                      http://www.customerssuck.com/?m=20080203

                      My destiny is not pretty, but it's what my cutie mark is telling me.

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                      • #12
                        I'm fortunate that I dont encounther a lot of panhandlers unless I go into the city. But on the times I do, I see the same people on the same corners spewing the same (slightly alterted) stories of woe.

                        My favourite one is from years ago when I was waiting for some friends at a very popular meeting up place in the city.

                        I was about an hour early and sat reading my book and people watching. Over the course of the hour I watched the same "woman" work the crowd (so to speak) On her forth approach at me to ask me for some money I looked her in her severly stoned eyes and said "if I didnt give you any money thr first 3 times you asked me, what makes you think I will now?"

                        She wandered off and not 10 mins later I saw her head back at me. She got about 10 feet away when recognition finally dawned and she staggered off to someone else.
                        "When did you get a gold plated toilet?"
                        "We don't have a gold plated toilet"
                        "Oh dear, I think I just peed in your Tuba"

                        -Jasper Fforde

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                        • #13
                          Quoth Sonoma View Post
                          I had the same person hit me up on 2 different days, same parking lot, same 'car out of gas' story.
                          I had something like that happen shortly after I started my current job. I was walking to one of the lunch spots in the city, when some guy approached me with a sob story about how he just got out of the hospital and hadn't had anything to eat all day. I was young and naive, so I felt sorry for him and gave him a few bucks.

                          A couple weeks later, the same guy approached me with the same story. I felt my faith in humanity take a steep drop, muttered something about not having any cash, and stormed off. I don't give people money anymore.
                          Sometimes life is altered.
                          Break from the ropes your hands are tied.
                          Uneasy with confrontation.
                          Won't turn out right. Can't turn out right

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                          • #14
                            Quoth gremcint View Post
                            we have ones that claim to have 4 or 5 kids to feed. I am so tempted to call cps, but I don't think they actually have kids so I don't want to waste CPS's time.
                            I'm tempted to get a few business cards to keep in a card folder in my wallet. Smith Family, Lifeline, Salvation Army, assorted other charities. Someone comes up to me asking for money, I offer them the appropriate card.

                            I haven't done that yet, but I'm so tempted to.
                            Seshat's self-help guide:
                            1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                            2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                            3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                            4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                            "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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                            • #15
                              I love the ones who sit on the side of the freeway exits talking on a cell phone and smoking a cigarette. Their cardboard signs always say "Anthing helps, God Bless!"
                              You really need to see a neurologist. - Wagegoth

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