Get your stories straight!

[EvilEmpryss]

My hubby (a psychology grad student) wants to go stand out on a corner with a sign reading:

Grad Student
Need $$$
4 School
Anything Will Help!

We're pretty sure that we could make his student loan payment in a week. Especially if we add "God Bless!" to the end. :evil:

[neetsmcgee]

I used to work for a bank as a traveling fill in teller. I was in a busy downtown site and a man came in. He carried a sign that said he was a disabled vet and used a wheelchair. He rolled into the bank, stood up and without difficulty walked over to me to deposit his take for the day.

He had over 50 thousand dollars in his account.

The regulars told me he came in all the time.

I give when I feel led, will buy food as well. But I do it knowing that there is a huge possibility that I am being scammed.

[Sapphire Silk]

My hubby (a psychology grad student) wants to go stand out on a corner with a sign reading:

Grad Student
Need $$$
4 School
Anything Will Help!

We're pretty sure that we could make his student loan payment in a week. Especially if we add "God Bless!" to the end. :evil:

I bet panhandlers make more money than grad students . . .

[Andara Bledin]

You just can't tell anymore who is lying. It's very sad

You never could. People like this have been taking advantage of the kindness of strangers pretty much forever.

^-.-^

[lupo pazzesco]

I had an instance waiting on the bus the other day after the shopping trip to Kroger. Guy came up, asked if I had spare change so he could get something to eat. Gave him my standard line, "sorry, don't have spare cash" He looked dejected, so I offered him some of the produce I bought, and he went away with an orange, some grapes, and a couple of cheese sticks. He looked thrilled, and shoved it in his pockets as though afraid I'd say "just kidding!" and take it all back.

Speaking of standard responses, that's generally what i do, say I don't carry SPARE cash, even though I generally do have a buck or two on me. It's amusing because there are people who will follow me into, say, a McDonald's, where I'll order a juice or some iced tea, and pay with cash, only to have them start screaming at me that I'M a liar and a cheat cuz I said I didn't have cash. I always point out I didn't say I didn't have ANY cash, just none to SPARE.

Ah, semantics...

[ralerin]

@Evil empryss: Actually, if you hubby is in psychology, it might make an interesting field study. Get a group of students together, have one or two dress grungy, the others normal, with those signs and see who gets more money. Then forward the money to an educational charity.

[elsporko]

I gave a dollar to a guy who said he needed food. Then he immediately started talking about how he was going to buy cigarettes. This pissed me off but I know he's an untreated schizophrenic and chances are he was so whacked out he didn't even realize the problem with what had gone on.

[EvilEmpryss]

@Evil empryss: Actually, if you hubby is in psychology, it might make an interesting field study.

We actually considered something like this for his dissertation. Would people respond charitably to people who say they just need to pay the bills? Does a suit and tie get a better or worse take than the grunge look?

To bad it's ethically questionable for him to keep the donated money. Those student loans really stack up for graduate school.

[Kogarashi]

I honestly don't keep any cash in my wallet if I can help it. I have a bad habit of spending any cash that I have because there's no accountability with it. So all the money in my wallet is plastic, and I can safely tell people that I have no cash on me.

Didn't stop one lady, though.

A friend and I were walking through downtown to look at some shops while she was visiting from her home state. We passed by two people, one a woman and the other a man, who were just conversing by the side of a shop. I thought nothing of it, until the woman hollered out to us, "Hey, do you have any cash to spare?"

I replied honestly, "Sorry, I don't have any cash on me."

She lost it. Started screaming at my back as we walked away that I was a liar and just didn't want to help out a poor needy person. I'm just glad she didn't follow us, and that her male companion kept quiet the whole time.

[pitmonkey]

What about the people asking for gas money. They stand on the corner with a gas can that has never had gas in it. Or the one who came up to Hubby saying she put the gas in the wrong tank and her man would not come fix it for her.

[protege]

I had someone bug me for gas money last weekend. Right as I'm getting into my car outside of Borders, this woman comes across the lot, and starts asking for gas money... because she "left her wallet at home." The story *might* have worked, had she not stepped out of a BMW SUV, when I pulled in, and carried a few bags of merchandise (from the jewelry store next door!) over to said car before trying to ask people for cash. I told her that I didn't have any cash. Sorry, but I don't give a dime to panhandlers. You want money? Either don't spend so much on crap, or get a damn job!

Seriously though, we don't have many panhandlers out in the 'burbs, mainly because they know that property owners won't tolerate it. They'll either get told to leave, or busted for trespassing. Even downtown Pittsburgh is telling them to get lost--after years of complaints by companies, most of them have disappeared.

[Dreamstalker]

I was walking to the T from work last week; there was a panhandler outside one of the ritzier-looking buildings on State Street (never seen him before, his cardboard sign looked too new if that makes sense). I ignore his lame pickup line, and get cursed at as I'm passing by...sorry, but not everyone who works down here has oodles of money to throw around.

It's "walking season" as well, so you'll see some panhandlers using that as an excuse (they have a clipboard with either a pledge sheet--bunch of names all with the same handwriting--or a badly-photocopied "mission statement" of some sort that they never let you actually read). Funniest one I've seen is a guy in the middle of November trying to collect money for a ride that wasn't until May...and there were a few things wrong with his shtick: the pledge sheet was from two years earlier, woman's name on it, and the event in question was for ovarian cancer.

I used to see one of the latter mission-statement guys in Park Street station...he had a very distinctive jacket so was easy to avoid. I wasn't completely sure what his deal was (was this legit or not) until I spotted him count a wad of cash that had to be more than I make in a month, then stick it back in his pocket and find another mark...who handed over a 20

[AriRashkae]

People say to "get a job," but they don't realize that panhandling is a job.

I mean, he made over $100 by lunchtime just telling people he wasn't actually in need of money!

And, since all their pay is in cash from random sources, I rather suspect the vast majority of them don't declare it all.

^-.-^

You don't know how tempting it is some days to sit on a busy corner with a bowl and my knitting. Of course, if I do that downtown, any cash would end up over at the yarn store local dealer for more yarn my drug of choice.

[Shalom]

I am reminded of one of the Sherlock Holmes stories where the"missing person" they were trying to find was a well-to-do businessman whose wife knew only that he went downtown to work every morning and had no idea what he actually did for a living: turned out he was a professional panhandler.

Had one person in a Mart of K parking lot ask me for spare change, I denied having any and she starts screaming and cursing at me, saying she can hear my pocket jingling. I told her, "That's my keys, damn it!" and showed her the ring with about ten keys on it that had been making the jingling noise she heard. Didn't think until after I got back into the car of telling her that any change I had wasn't "spare", but you always think of these things too late. In Yiddish they call that "Treppwerter", or words you think of in the stairway after you've already left and it's too late to say them.

[Canarr]

We had a nasty one last year, when we left the "Spiel" trade fair in Essen. Saturday evening, walking along the sidewalk towards the parking lot where our car was, when a guy wished us a good evening and asked if we had any spare change we could give him. Didn't even say for what, just asked. Mid-forties, carrying a couple of bags, looking unkempt.

One of our group politely declined. Nope, sorry.

Guy asked again. Come on, anything, just a Euro or so.

Another one of our group declined. Again, politely.

Guy asked a third time. Anything? Surely we could spare a bit?

By now, he was annoying, so I chimed in with the other two. We said no already, okay?

Then he flipped. "I asked you politely three times, and you can't spare a bit of money to help out a person in need? Go ahead, choke on you f*cking avarice, you bastards!"

One of our guys was close to flipping out on him, called a few insults back, so we just pushed him along and walked away, hearing the wannabe-panhandler still yelling behind us. Left me scratching my head, but happy I hadn't given him anything.