Boy did I get suckered
 

I was coming out of the food store and about to get in my truck. This guy, 35ish or so, pulled up in a beater SUV and asked if I needed my truck washed. No. Almost immediately he got out and started rubbing his thigh. He had a prosthetic leg from the knee down. He starts telling me he needs to make some money because Marine and the VA didn't send the right amount and he needs to make some money to feed his kids. I tell him good luck and start to get into my truck. Then he asks me if I have something to spare to help him feed his kids. I had a $20 and eight ones, so I gave him the ones. When he got back in the car I noticed him take a swig out of one of those 32 oz soft drinks they sell at the gas station. I said, "How is it you can't afford to buy food for your kids but you can buy big sugary drinks for yourself?" Then I noticed six cans of beer and a McDonald's bag on the passenger seat. He mumbled something about Marines and VA and I just got back in my truck. He left the food store and drove off down the street.
So, he's so broke he has to beg for money to feed his kids, and he drives out of a food store parking lot with six beers and a McDonald's meal in the car - and $8 of my money. Yes, I'm a sucker.

The good in most of us wants to help, but the honest truth is so many panhandlers either aren't really in the financial shape they say or the money will just go to "fueling" an addiction.

There are so many charity organizations that will help the needy and in my opinion that is the best way to help, not handing someone some cash.

Good on you for having compassion though.

I had some little schitball come up to me in McDonalds and ask for money...while holding a cell phone.

I had a panhandler at a the gas station where I was filling my car ask for a few bucks so he could drive to a job interview. The idiot had a cigarette in his mouth. I told him a pack of smokes cost more than a couple of gallons of gas. He just started cussing.

The majority of pan handlers could work if they really wanted to. Plenty of help wanted signs out there. Of course I do realize there are some folks with mental and psych disabilities who are in a bind.

I may have mentioned this before but I noticed when growing up in Southern California and also living in Norcal for a while, I don't think I've ever once saw an Asian pan handler. I still haven't to this day. Large Asian population in Cali, of course. Something in their cultural upbringing says you don't put a hand out.

Somebody here not long ago also posted the story about the McDonalds worker with Down syndrome who'd been working there for 30 years making french fries - talk about adversity.

Some would just rather put their hand out on the freeway off ramp.

ya did a good thing Patrick. You know it, he knows it. That's all you can take away from the event, in my opinion.

Had an interesting thing happen some years ago. On my last leg home from a long weekend in WV with my other longhood friends and I exit the Dan Ryan in Chicago in my 71T. I took the 31st St. exit since the traffic was jacked and I know a way around it - sort of. Older black man was at the stop light telling a story about how the church van was out of gas just after where I got off (saw the white van) and he needs gas. He was dressed in a sport coat, slacks, and tie but still figured a scam, so said no thanks and pulled away.

My good side started pulling at me and I thought, what if he really is in trouble and his granddaughter really is down in the van. I decided to head back after a few blocks. Called the guy over and said hop in and we would go to the gas station. Said he didn't have a gas can with him or something like that so cash would be great. I told him I did not have any cash, but today was his lucky day - I was going to buy him a gas can and fill up his tank (if his story was legit). It was not, he mumbled something about just needed the cash and I politely asked him to get out.

Jeez, just trying to help... Almost suckered.

I hate the guilty feeling I get whenever some bleeding heart is laying their life out for all to see, and I still refuse to hand them a quarter. Oh, well, i'll get over it, and so will they. So many suckers in the world.

Agreed...

I was gassing up the 930 about a month ago . A little green Saturn pulls in behind me, and out gets a thin , somewhat attractive 20 something girl. She is not pumping gas, and keeps eyeballing me. I am dirty from the days work , and I'm homely, so I am pretty sure she is not checking me out.
She then comes up to me and asks if she can have a few dollars for gas to get home. She told me she had to take her baby to the doctors and was on her way back home , but did not have enough gas money to get back . She looked a little bit like a junky, but she did in fact, have a baby in a car seat in the back.
I had six dollars in my pocket. I gave her that and hoped and prayed that it went in the gas tank to get the little one home, and not into her veins.
I have had a few other people hit me up at the gas pumps before . It usually puts me on high alert , and I never open up my wallet . I dont want to get robbed. I bet if you stand there for a while, and watch them , they collect a good bit of money, and never put a penny in the tank .

Last time I gave money to a beggar, I said no booze, food only like he asked for. Watched him go in the gas station as I filled up and he went right to the beer cooler.

That was the last time I gave someone money.

Don't let it stop you from doing it again. Don't let their baggage give you any more of your own and change your heart. I'd rather be a sucker than hard-hearted.

They hung out a lot at the left turn light at intersections on the peninsula of the SF Bay Area...with a sign, "Will work for food."...etc.
Most of them looked like they came out of the Depression Era.
I always had some business cards on the dash of my truck and if I was stopped right next to them I'd tell them that they'll have more than food...$$$ in their pocket.
I'd guess maybe 30 -40 times I handed a business card and told them to call and that I always have a need for day laborers.
Only once in 20 yrs. or so did a guy show up and he was worthless, so I let him go at 10:30 in the morning.
Just sad sack con jobs, IMO.

It was years ago but... I was catching a long distance bus on a Friday evening when a woman approached me and told me she had lost her bus ticket and needed money for another ticket to get home to her kids....

I said no but felt REALLY bad about it for a week. The same time next Friday she approached me with the same story. I looked at her with a fixed smile and she even stopped half way through the story to ask if I understood English (LOL). I just said to her "You are going to have to learn to hold on to your ticket better; you lost it last week too." She just calmly to me to get f***ed and moved onto the next person.

How about the grocery chains who compel their checkouts to ask if you want to donate to XYZ.
I tell them that their company doesn't care about their customers when they present the customers with an opportunity to feel like a cheapskate.
That company ploy pisses me off.

These days when someone with a tragic look on their face rattles a tin at me with small change it it. I just politely say "No thanks, I've already got some."

You can go in and pay amount X at pump Y, let the attendant know what you are doing(no cash refund).

Always try to solve the problem, if they are lying, they'll blow up at you for it. The times they really need it are worth the sorting through.

I do however, not even bother with those hanging out on left turn lanes of stop lights. Those guys are in for large amounts of cash, they know the stoplight keeps real caring interaction from taking place, the people are pressured to hand cash and get moving as the light goes green.

i will give a couple of bucks to the in-front-of-the-liquor-store beggars. once in a while. most of them are living a pretty sad life. they can go buy themselves a beer. on me.

I was robbed at gunpoint at the gas pump by a van full of 'visitors to this country' who first asked, then before I could answer, demanded money. The two adolescents were busy texting and jabbering on cell phones.

I had $16 dollars in cash, and as I gave it to the oldest viejo, I said, in perfect Castilian, "was it really worth it, considering the example set to the small children peering out the windows?"

They got on the northbound onramp.

The state troopers caught them 6 miles away.

The gun was stolen. The van was stolen. No one had papers. No charges, no one had ID.

Welcome to the USA, we love new democratic voters.

My bet is they live in a church basement now, on welfare, kids in school, mom's both were pregnant with soon-to-be-citizens.

I see the viejo begging at McD's all the time.

I like the ones with the sign in one hand and are texting with the other.

P.S., I've already voted.

Spent a lot of years living in begger craphole central just north of Hollywood blvd. the was a homeless guy with a broom who would meticulously sweep the sidewalk near ivar.
He never asked for money. But people would just shower him with cash. Everyone was just so in awe of a bum actually doing something to make the city nicer. Within a few hours he usually had enough for food and a bag of weed. It was the life he wanted.

Eventually he disappeared. Died or just moved, who knows. But what struck me is that none of the hundred other regular bums picked up the broom and took over the very lucrative job. Even two hours a day was too much for them.

My involvement is finished with that crowd, it was after dark, and they never got to the back of the car where the plate is. I'm in Alabama, and the plate was South Dakota, it would have stood out.

I see Army retired. Where did you end up?

Recently saw a woman trying a new angle with a "ugly, please help" sign. It was a multi-colored sign that she had put a lot of effort into. As I drew closer I realized it said hungry not ugly. I could do nothing about the ugly but gave her an apple for the other.

I usually have a small shopping bag of decent older clothes that I hand out when it starts to get colder. Havent had anyone ask or demand money in a long time.

I only support dogs.....it sorta weeds out the chafe a bit..... :D

Saw an above-the-elbow amputee in Berlin holding a sign that read: "I could use a hand". He got some of my money and I got a laugh.

_

I once offered a beggar on a street corner "looking for work" a full Thanksgiving style meal with leftovers if he would come help split some wood at home. He said he was just looking for handouts.

I was working in LA for,the week.

One evening I got lost,out for a drive.
I ran low on gas and pulled into a station to fill up.

I felt a little uncomfortable in the area I had stopped, and being Canadian I am not that street smart.

A 30ish guy comes up and offers to pump my gas for money.
I hesitated but then had a second thought, I'm making good money this week anted can afford to share the wealth. He was polite, started pumping my gas while I stood by, and quit of nowhere a stumbling drunk ******* comes out of the dark and first begs for money then tries to assault me.

My new friend put him down, apologized and wouldn't take payment.

I stuffed a 20 "tip" in his shirt pocket, and felt cheap at that.

Some people are decent but it's a bit rare.

Where was that or what part of the city?

My sister did some of her mandatory work during nursing school down on Skid Row. I would never go down there but have driven through it. She was young, in college and we were all very concern about here safety down there. Its full of some roughest folks around. She told us that there are these people who live on the street that would walk her and her friends to and from their cars protecting the girls because they knew the girls were there to help them. She got to know them and notice many of them have mental health issues. Thanks goodness nothing ever happened to them for the whole semester they were down there. It makes me feel good that there are still good people around no matter how down in the ditch they are.

I honestly don't know where I was. I thought I was near the airport but I could have been anywhere. I was glad to find the freeway

It was some years ago

Ok, not a nice area at all. Glad you escape all right. If this was 25 -30 years ago, that would have been bad

Early 1990s

I went home during lunch to pick something up. Stopped at the gas station up the street from my house and a guy in a ratty van walks up with a 2 gallon gas tank and tells me about how he just finished a job but does not have enough gas to get home, all I need is 2 gallons...... So I put 2 gallons in his gas can and go on my way. About 30 minutes later I am on my way back to work and ratty van guy is still at it getting more gas from another sucker. Well at the time fuel was about $4 a gallon, so in an hour he probably filled up his car for free. Pissed me off. Kinda had to laugh though, who wants to pay $4 a gallon?

I gave a little karma back to a Canadian snowbird last year. Outside a southern Ohio gas station found a wallet stuffed with hundreds in cash and CCs. Gave it to clerks and asked them to call the sheriff. I figured the cash might disappear but the rest would get to him.
(In hindsight I should have called the sheriff myself. dumb.)

After working with the welfare crowd for several years, I don't give hand outs to anybody. The whole system is a scam. I've also quit donating anything to charities claiming to help with disaster recoveries/relief outside the country, when I heard large portions of it gets skimmed off by corrupt politicians and other criminals or a year later the charities still haven't handed out the money or resources or used 95% for administrative costs.

I agree. Thanks for saying this. I've been suckered occasionally, and I can live with that.

I'm assuming that you're not confusing being "hard-hearted" with being an enabler.

I seldom have cash on me. When I do, it's generally no more than $40 in some weird configuration of $1s and $5s. But if I have it to spare, I'll hand out a coupla bucks to a person standing at the many exit/entrance ramps around the city (I swear these peeps are all over the place, in Raleigh). I'll just do something stupid with it myself, so if it buys a guy a Whopper or a beer, so be it. No matter how I rationalize it, I'm still better off; they ain't getting rich. And they don't need my judgements.

Went out to dinner with Mrs Saucy in downtown Hartford CT a few weeks back, driving freshly detailed Black Suburban.

I opened the door and before my foot hit the ground..."Yo mistah, that sure is a nice truck. Someone with such a nice truck must have money to spare for a hungry brother..." Meanwhile, he's approaching me with speed. He got a $5.

Mrs Saucy thought it was weird that I was "generous". I told her I felt like $5 was a small price to pay to not have our truck vandalized or us get jumped...either or was about to happen. I didn't want to pull a pistol, so $5 was the conflict resolution.

We ate at a window seat at the restaurant, watching this guy pull this bullischt with almost every coupe getting out of their car.

20 yrs. ago I bought this Descente ski jacket w/hood in Paris for a foolish sum of around 500 USD...I like it and I had to have it.
Something about the heat-gathering properties of the fabric.
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So I notice that I need gas and I'm in an area of Oakland, CA where you might need to shoot your way out. As I'm pumping gas a black dude comes up and says, "Nice jacket, man. Where'd you get it and how much was it?" I said, "Downtown Oakland, a few bucks." He stood there for a little while looking at it and then walked to the pay window. He came back and again said how much he liked the jacket...this time he was so close I thought he was going to kiss me.
I quickly shortened my gas fill and sped out of there.
This was back in the days when the brothers were shooting each other for their Jordan Nike basketball shoes.
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