Panhandling SC's looking for handouts!

[theredbaron47]

Last year I was sick, and I was walking from my dorm building several blocks to the CVS to get some medicine (I was walking through the city). I was plugged into my CD player, so I was oblivious to much of my surroundings. I heard a guy call behind me, and turned to see what it was.

There was this young man, no older than 30, dressed like any other young man walking around (save for suits and expensively dressed men and women), and a woman around his age, dressed the same (average). He proceeded to ask me if I had any money because he's new in town, they need to get to *xxx* by tomorrow or else he'll lose his job, his car was impounded, he has no means of getting it out, the police told him he's SOL... I forget all the exact details, but I remember thinking that he really was SOL, assuming he was telling me the truth.

Long story short, I felt bad for him, being young and not knowing better (it was my first year living in the city, and thus dealing with panhandlers), so I ended up giving him $5. I needed the rest of my money for the medicine I needed to buy.

THEN he asked if that was all I could spare. My eyes flashed at him and he saw this and backed down. The nerve of him!! Even if his story was completely true (doubtful), if a stranger is nice enough to give you $5, don't fucking ask if that's the best they can do!!! Seriously, I wanted to bust him in the mouth and throw his companion into oncoming traffic after that.

He seemed nice enough and genuine at first, which was why I gave him anything period. It just goes to prove that you can't trust humanity these days

[Eireann]

I hate those hard-luck stories. If someone's going to tell an unbelievable story in hopes of getting money, s/he should make it something really INVENTIVE. Something that won't make it a waste of the other person's time to stand there listening to it. I got a guy approaching me with a sob story about how he was new in town and was starting a job soon, but his girlfriend couldn't live with him because his landlady didn't believe in unmarried couples living together, so he was trying to scrape up the money for her to take the train to her family two hours away.

Now, imagine how much better a panhandler would do with something like, "I was abducted by aliens and they erased all but my bad memories, so I need to pay them to put back the good memories, plus my PIN."

[JustADude]

I hate those hard-luck stories. If someone's going to tell an unbelievable story in hopes of getting money, s/he should make it something really INVENTIVE. Something that won't make it a waste of the other person's time to stand there listening to it. I got a guy approaching me with a sob story about how he was new in town and was starting a job soon, but his girlfriend couldn't live with him because his landlady didn't believe in unmarried couples living together, so he was trying to scrape up the money for her to take the train to her family two hours away.

Now, imagine how much better a panhandler would do with something like, "I was abducted by aliens and they erased all but my bad memories, so I need to pay them to put back the good memories, plus my PIN."

The first one would actually get a couple bucks, if I had it to spare... the second would get a call to the cops saying there's a mentally disturbed individual on the corner.

[Purple Monkey Dishwasher]

I don't like it... and yet... I can't hate it. Nothing in the world ever prepared me for poverty... but it happened a few years ago. I never expected that there would come a day when I'd get sick, have no money, and no insurance. But, it happened. I'm way too cool to ever be a panhandler, but I'll never refer to that time as "the good old days." Somehow I got through it, though it almost killed me... twice.

Yeah. I moved across country (In the US, "Cross country" means something - I'm talking 3000 miles.) I knew one person in San Francisco, and was living off $1500 savings at a $95 per-week roach-infested dump. I came within a week of being homeless, before I found a job.

That whole ordeal was about 11 years ago, and, while I TRULY sympathize with the homeless, I still fucking hate the things they do to MY STORE! They shit on the floors, steal my beer, piss on my gas pumps, beg children for money right in front of my store, set fires on the railroad tracks across the street... They dig through my trash for bottles and cans, just dumping the rest of the trash on the ground. They barf on my sidewalks.

My sympathy runs thin sometimes.

Joe

[Purple Monkey Dishwasher]

I don't give money to people with animals in tow. Animals can cost more than kids to feed and I don't understand how they can afford to keep a pet when I can't, and I'm working full time.

I understand how you feel. But to give your only (canine) friend and protector a 70-cent can of food every day? Not a big expense. You think they take the dog to the vet or something?

Joe

[RecoveringKinkoid]

A friend of mine gave a burger to a panhandler once and instead of being thankful or eating it or anything he chucks it out into traffic and starts cursing out my friend about how he doesn't want f-ing food he wants f-ing money! We walked away very quickly.

Well, at least he was one of the few willing to be honest about it.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Okay, the guy with the sign about the ninjas killing his family? Him I'd give money to. I'd feel like he gave me a laugh and earned it!

There was this loser that tried the "gas" scam on my route to work for a couple days. He hung out by the side of the road during morning rush hour, at a slow curve where you wouldn't hold up traffic if you stopped, holding a bleach bottle. Beat up car nearby. He waved us down and said somethng like "could you go get me some gas in this bottle?"

See, what a lot of them do, is try to distract you from the fact that they are panhandling by asking you to do them a favor instead. They know you don't want to bother with them, and are trying not to be late to work. So they figure you'll hand them some money as a "consolation prize" so they can at least put it towards gas when help does arrive.

This douche was too lazy to even do his homework to discover that if he'd gone around the bend in the road a bit, he would have discovered that he was close walking distance to a gas station.

Anyway, here's conversation #1:

PanHandler: Help me out, buddy, I've got 2 dollars. Could you go get me some gas for my car?
Husband: Two dollars isn't much.
PH: Well, it's all I got. I'm trying to get to the bus station. (aren't they always?) Can you help me man?
H: I can't put gas in a bleach bottle.
PH:
H: That's not safe. That's not even legal.
PH: C'mon, man....
H: Sorry, man. (pulls off and goes on our way.)
Me: You should have told him the gas station was right up the road.
H:

Now before you accuse us of being mean to a man who probably was in need, read on. He was back the following day. With a shiny new red gas can.

Conversation #2

We pull up and roll down the window. Panhandler sees us and goes
Husband: Nice gas can.

He wasn't back the following day. Probably left for a smartass-free corner to hustle on.

[Dreamstalker]

Once I was visiting my GF at that time, at College. And I needed change for $1. I asked about 15 people. I got told that I need a job, to go to hell. This one lady gave me the change, and didn't expect the $1. I told them all, what that money was for.

Way back before the Charliecard system was even conceived, I found myself in Harvard Square with zero loose change. This was when the buses would not take dollar bills (fare was 60 cents or something like that). I was able to get on the bus, then asked if anyone had change for a dollar. I also got glares and "get a job" (I did not look homeless by any means, I just ran out of change). A teenager finally came up with the change, half the bus watched as I thanked him, gave him the dollar and put most of the change I got into the farebox. You'd think they'd never seen anyone honest asking for change before.

[yomiko]

I understand how you feel. But to give your only (canine) friend and protector a 70-cent can of food every day? Not a big expense. You think they take the dog to the vet or something?

Joe

Actually around here they have a free vet program for the homeless. It's usually clinics set up a few times a year, where veterinary students volunteer their time (or maybe get extra credit?) and give the pets checkups. It's pretty cool.

[Pezzle]

I gave a panhandler a dollar the other night, admittedly I was extremely laser death drunk. But he hung out for a while, I bought him a cigar, and we ended up having a very good time. He told me it'd been the best time he's had socially in years.

[blas]

That guy is STILL panhandling every weekend on that highway exit. I work all week and don't drive to that side of town, so I don't know if he's there every day.

Last Saturday it was raining something fierce, almost flooding. It flooded further south. There he was out in the rain, smoking a cigarette with his carboard sign "Will work for food!"

[Skandranon]

I remember a panhandler about a year ago... a gas station near me seemed to be a hangout for them. I had stopped for lunch, soda and hot dogs, when he asked me for money. I tried to hand him a hot dog, he said "Naw, don't want yo' lunch." I said "Take the hot dog or not, you're not getting money."

He took the hot dog and apologized, and seemed actually sorry. Since I didn't have anywhere to be, I sat down on the sidewalk next to him to have lunch, and we chatted for an hour. Nice fellow, if a bit out of it. Had gone into debt, something about an illness, then lost his job. Since the hospital I worked for was just two hundred feet away and hiring low level positions, I mentioned it to him, and he thanked me and said he'd apply.

Asked the manager later, he never showed up. Pity, really.

But I'd like to say that people shouldn't totally disregard all requests for help. There are those out there that do really need a little aid.

My father and I went vacationing about five years ago. Great trip, but by the end of it we were down to maybe $10. We didn't realize that apparently that country has some sort of border crossing tax or whatnot, and we didn't have enough. My father went through the line asking for help, and finally came across a nice couple who gave him the $30 or so we needed. He wrote down their address, and first thing when we got home, he mailed out a $100 check and a thank you card.

[protege]

Where I live, out in the 'burbs, you don't see panhandlers too often. They simply aren't tolerated, and property owners *will* run them off. They tried sitting at various intersections around the mall, but that didn't last long. Since the mall is private property, they got busted for trespassing. Downtown is another story. There are usually bums around the bus station, and occasionally near the stores and banks.

In rural SW PA, they simply don't exist, or hide up in the hills. Sure, there are poor folks, but they're on welfare, and keep to themselves.

There is one guy who I've seen on all the roads around my grandmother's town. He actually walks miles out of town to pick up cans along the road. When his bags are full, he walks to the scrapyard in town to sell them. For years, I'd give him all of our soda cans, plus a huge garbage bag or two, and he'd keep our side road clean. If I had any scrap aluminum I'd ripped out of a dead computer, or just scraps, he got it. He didn't speak very well, but someone was taking care of him--he didn't stink, nor was he dirty. Always had a warm coat on.

[mscrybaby]

The first time I ever saw someone begging for food my friends and I were playing around and got so upset by the sign, the family sitting on the tailgate of a broken down looking car we went to the store they were in front of and bought them a bunch of food that the kids could eat that didn't need cooking and gave them what cash we had left, about 20.00 never saw that family again.

The most upsetting begger I ever saw was driving to Walmart and my exbf, my sons father, was sitting on the corner by Walmart with a sign that said "Broke due to child support please help" OMG I was a raving lunatic. I just ignored him and went on luckily his grandma saw him there a day or two later and let me tell you that old woman about murdered him right there on the corner. We never saw him on that corner with that sign again.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

The most upsetting begger I ever saw was driving to Walmart and my exbf, my sons father, was sitting on the corner by Walmart with a sign that said "Broke due to child support please help"

How did you stop yourself driving over him with your car several times! Did it never occur to this asshole that going out and getting a job and supporting his children MIGHT...just MIGHT...be a better use of his time than hanging out in a parking lot with a fucking SIGN on his chest????

I...I don't think I could have avoided killing him. You're better than me.