The people asking for spare change are getting more aggressive

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
E

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,585
3,796
126
I drive around in a rather large, well logo'd truck for work. I pass two or three corners where there is always someone holding up a sign asking for money. In the past they have left me alone - no doubt due to the logos. However, saturday I had the guy come up to my window and make the 'roll your window down' motion to ask me for change. Sunday I had a guy knock on my passenger side window to ask for change - scaring the piss outa me since I didn't even know he was there.

Today at home I was outside with my dog. A squeeky car rolled up and a guy got out saying he needed money to get by till he started his job at mcdonalds (he was about 45). He was willing to wash and wax my car or clean my house. He had everything he needed in his car.

I have been approached in cities before, but I've never had my window knocked on or been approached at my house - and we live kinda live at the edge of suburbia (on the otherside of the road I live on is a single row of houses and then farm fields for about 50 miles). The nearest mcdonalds is about a 15min drive away

It was a very wierd experiance.
 
Ns1

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,420
1,600
126
I found that if you whip your cock out, they will generally stop asking for money. Generally.
 
AnonymouseUser

AnonymouseUser

Diamond Member
May 14, 2003
9,943
107
106
Originally posted by: Exterous
The homeless first started arriving in Ann Arbor about three months ago. At first there were only a few of them, asking for change, sleeping in the parks. But then more showed up, and we realized there was something different about them. They fed off of our change to the point that they could actually start renting apartments.

We knew it wouldn't be long before the homeless actually started buying homes, and then we'd have no idea who was homeless and who wasn't! The people living in the house right next door to you could be homeless and you wouldn't even know!

Nobody could trust anybody. Fights broke out. War! That's when I started suspecting that my own wife, who I had been living with for 20 years, was actually homeless, so I had to burn her... in her bed... while she slept. After she died I vowed I wouldn't let the homeless destroy our town, so we came up with a plan to get rid of them once and for all...
Click to expand...

:music: California :music:
 
Capt Caveman

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,543
651
126
Originally posted by: Ns1
I found that if you whip your cock out, they will generally stop asking for money. Generally.
Click to expand...

I'd think they'd ask a lot more than some change for that.
 
CPA

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
OP, I also had a dude come out to my house asking for work to do. Told him that's what my sons are for. We live out in the boonies as well and he was riding a crickety old bike. Never had that happen before.
 
uberman

uberman

Golden Member
Sep 15, 2006
1,942
1
81
I do give change. It's not that painful. I really don't care too much what the person needs it for. This country's economy is in the tank. The social programs of the past have been gutted. People are really in need.

I even passed by a guy in San Francisco the other day. He was on the street drinking a 24 ounce beer. I surprised him with another one. He wasn't drunk, just having a good time. I just told him he should back away from the street to avoid a citation. I'm sure it made his day and it costs me less than $2.00.

I also give food, but cash is best. I do not encourage aggressive panhandling or what appears to be highly paid professional panhandlers. Some people actually do need some cash.
 
CZroe

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
126
The other day, someone came in the restaurant, sat down next to me while I waited for my food, and asked me to buy him food. Though I don't often see homeless people in my town, I often buy an extra food item for homeless people who did not solicit it. I declined but offered him my fries because I had really purchased the combo for the drink. He munched a few, asked for a piece of my hamburger instead, and then got up to leave when I said "no." I found it strange that he was walking away from the fries when he was begging for food, so I asked if he wanted to take them with him. He did the "push wave" gesture and mumbled "no" as he turned and walked out the door. Huh. Must not be desperate for food then, but he's desperate enough to come INSIDE to beg.

The very next day, another beggar refused the same kind of food after asking for it! I was getting off my motorcycle to go into McDonalds and there was a guy sitting next to the newspaper machine eating a pack of McDonald's cookies. He asked for $3 "to get back home," which is odd, considering that we have no public transportation or cab service without reservations in town. I assumed that it was for gas. I told him that I didn't have it and, to explain how I was paying for my meal if I don't even have $3, I said that I would be buying my food with credit. I wouldn't have said anything if I weren't kinda stuck with him out there while suiting-down and locking up my helmet and stuff. Anyway, that prompted the guy to ask me to buy him "something to eat," at which point I pointed to his cookies and said "it looks like you've already got something." He said "Oh, that's just cookies, man. Could you just get me something?" I half considered just getting him some cookies to rub it in that cookies are "something," but I had resolved that this guy was clearly just trying to get whatever he could get. I told him a half-truth that I was using my mother's card and she did not authorize me to make a purchase for him (I had her and my card from our joint account). To shut him up, I told him that *IF* I had some fries left or something I'd give them to him because I couldn't take them on my motorcycle.

It took a minute to get off and go in the restaurant, so another customer beat me inside and was asked by the same bum for a ride... "Ha-ey man! You and me seem to bump into each other everywhere. How 'bout a ride to my home in Palmetto, man?" While walking right past and into the restaurant, the other guy growled that he already told the bum to leave him alone. In the minute it took me to get ready, the guy asked for money, food, and a ride.

My theory about this guy needing gas money didn't fit with the "ride home" request, so it was clear that this was just one bum that wanted any one of the three typical bum things (I don't count cigarette or "friend who drinks all my beer" bums). Even so, my fries were bad and I couldn't bring myself to eat them without requiring the nutrition like a truly poor or homeless person would. Bevfore leaving, I told the employees there that this guy was ambushing customers at the door and asking for money, food, and rides and they said they'd call the cops. When I stepped out with the fries to tell him to take them and leave or else they were calling the cops, he was long gone despite the earlier promise of food. He didn't really need anything.

TWO days in a row, TWO hungry bums turning down my fries. Huh.
 
HannibalX

HannibalX

Diamond Member
May 12, 2000
9,359
2
0
Some guy said once said something along these lines: a man who doesn't work doesn't deserve to eat. Who was that anyway?
 
rivan

rivan

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2003
9,677
3
81
There's a woman who "works" a corner at a highway exit sorta near my house. She'll give you the serious stinkeye if you don't either a) give her cash or b) look away while she stares at you.

She's been at the same intersection almost daily for almost a year. She'll switch sides to coincide with the flow of rush hour traffic.

She has a house about 3 blocks from the interchange, with a newer Saab in the driveway.

Yesterday, I was offered a PS3 in the parking lot of my local grocery store; I live in fairly nice area. Guess it's just close to the highway.
 
S

SampSon

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2006
7,160
1
0
Carry a taser.
If the bum complains you won't have a problem, the authorities are more prone to believe you and not the bum.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom