They can go to OBAMA for help.

When I was younger and lived in a few different apartments around campus I can remember panhandlers actually knocking on my door and asking for money.
Happened one time when I was living in CA too.
I had a friend over and got a knock on my door. My friend checked the peephole and opened the door. Told me there was someone at the door for me.
Was some black guy asking for $2.14 to "get a taxi ride home"
I was pretty pissed at my friend after that.
These days I don't open the door for ANYONE unless they've got a USPS or UPS uniform on.

Wife and i was coming back form Florida and 3 black women, Not threating but really fat and all kinds of bling.

Any way they got of of a SUV ( dont know what kind but nice) they asked for help with gas. but here is the catch. They wanted us to follow them to another gas station because the gas was cheaper there..

Im like fuck no.

im thinking robbery !!!

A tale from the other side.



My (then) girlfriend got a student summer job in the US. Her dad asked me to look after her if anything went wrong so I got some temp work in that area. As we suspected, she dropped out after a few weeks I met up with her and we headed off somewhere that I had already scoped out for work, so we could support ourselves for the rest of the summer. Well, so I could support her for the rest of the summer



On the way we found ourselves at a train station close to Washington DC, fairly late at night and quite empty. I got talking to this older guy as we waited, general chitchat about stuff and what we were doing. When we parted company, he went to shake hands and palmed me $200 . I tried to return it saying we have no way of paying it back. He said something along the lines of "Sure you do - one day you'll be sitting at a station with a spare $200 in your pocket, and you'll meet some kids who could do with a night in a clean hotel and a good meal. That's when you pay me back."



Old black guy at a train station somewhere near Washington, I salute you!



To the guys who have offered a helping hand to the folks who look like they need it but have never asked for it, I salute you as well!

I have.   I worked at a place in Boston called The Rat, Boston's best punk rock bar.   We had this guy named Mr. Butch that always bummed around the area.   He was pretty funny though and he honest and a nice guy.   He would work for money or beer so I always put him to work when he wanted.   We had a car theft problem there so he used to sit on my car or motorcycle and drink beer to keep an eye on it while I was at work  Years later, after the bar closed, I would still see him around town.   Sometimes I would try to give him something and if he was doing OK he would just say so and not take it.   He has passed on now though.

Et cetera

In my travels I have run into may grifters panhandlers and all kinds of bums.  Not as much as those of you who live in big cities but enough just the same.

DC, Houston,San Antonio, Seattle, Savannah, Dayton, Charleston sc,  New Orleans, Galveston and all points in between.  I am proud of one thing.  I never gave one of them bums a damn dime.  My father told me when I was growing up that if anyone asked for food to buy them some and he would pay me back.  He grew up in the first depression and had bums come to the house and all they had to eqt were  eggs but his mother would cook bums egg sandwich's.

I think I bought a guy a wataburger one time but most all of them want money.

I tell them.  I'm sorry ,   people use to help each other but the government took that responsibility away from the churches and from me when they started taxing the shit out of me .  It is their responsibility now and there are many organizations that can help you if you will only ask them.  I am sorry, while I have money it is for my family .

One guy in DC was collecting for some cause and he would not let it go.  I said If you want some of my money go over there and get it from Clinton {I pointed to the white house} that mother fucker took 10 grand from me last year.  That really pissed him off.

Some I will say "You look able bodied go get a fucking job"  Or my standard "get the fuck away from me"  On the first leg of my honeymoon in San Antonio we saw a bum laying in the rain next to the river walk.  Not 20 feet away was a bench out of the rain under a street overpass.  He had a bowl set out for money.  I stopped said in a loud voice "  I ought to pull out my dick and piss on this stupid ass bum who is too stupid to move out of the rain"  I had hoped to get a response but he never moved. Yea I know stay classy.  I was much younger then. But the point was  that he had staged that whole scene to get tax free cash. fuck him.

I still have no use for panhandlers.

Did he point it at him?

As far as the aggression thing...it's not uncommon for people to approach cars "unaggressively" and then car jack, rob, etc.

ETA: I deal with homeless CONSTANTLY in my line of work.  All 3 of the city's shelters are in the area I work.  If you give them money you are a fool.  Also, some of you folks that live in the country don't have any clue what metro homeless are like...not even in the same ballpark.

I live in South Florida. The homeless have a number of shelters they can go to.





I've offered them food and water. They never take it. They want money for alcohol or drugs. Also a good percentage of the "homeless" aren't. I've arrested a number of them that are fake. They have addresses, cars, etc....





They dress up like a bum and panhandle for eight hours a day. You'd be surprised how much money they make. I'm talking a couple hundred bucks a day in some areas. One guy I have dealt with on numerous occasions has been trespassed from just about everything. I mean like I have basically trespassed him from the entire city. He has a routine. Parks his Toyota in a large hopping center. Walk three blocks. Dirties himself up, wears shitty clothing, and wear's a shoe on it's side to make it appear that he has a disfigurement and limps. Guy makes about $250-$300 a day if we don't stop him. Panhandling is illegal in my city. I don't fault the guy for being creative and figuring out how to make a buck with little to know investment.





But in the end the majority are either scams or they're homeless because they want to be and are drug addicts or alcoholics. Same as the welfare queens.

 

I saw a bum with a sign
"Homless vet  blah...blah..blah...",
with a First Infantry division patch on his sign,
UP SIDE DOWN!

L

Each time is different.

Once I was driving thru Arizona on the Interstate. Stopped at a middle of nowhere rest area to use the restroom. As I was getting back in my vehicle a boy of about 10-12yrs old approached me. He was polite and asked me for help. After talking with him he explained he and his mother were traveling to Las Vegas where she had landed a job but they were penniless and their car had broken down. They needed some money to get it towed and repaired. He even showed me their car. It was an old P.O.S. with everything they owned jammed in it. Something about the kids story rang true to me so I gave him $200.00. His mouth fell open and he thanked me profusely all the while saying how this would "get them there". Wished him good luck and went on my way.
To this day I don't feel I was scammed.

Another time another place.
A co-worker and I had flown out to El Paso to check out a job. We were going to be doing a bunch of driving around the countryside so we stopped at WallyWorld and bought a cheap ice chest. Filled it with all kinds of drinks and eats. We lived out of that chest for 3 days. When we were driving back to the airport we were discussing what to do with the ice chest and food. He wanted to just trash the food and leave the empty chest in the rental car. About this time we stopped at an intersection and a bum was standing there holding a I'm hungry sign. I said lets just give it to the the bum? Okay.
I wave the bum over and tell him he can have the ice chest with all the food in it. The mother fucker demands to know if there is any beer in it! Doesn't even LOOK at it when I said no. The guy wouldn't take it.
So somebody at the car rental place got a free cooler.

For a while the local WallyWorld had a "crippled vet" bum working the entrance. He sat there all day in his wheel chair with his little sign working the intersection. I passed thru there several times a day and noticed the douchebag always had cigs and an ice chest hidden behind some shrubs. Then late one afternoon a woman came to take him home. I saw him stand up out of the wheelchair and get in the car! Of course this was done out of sight of the intersection.

I wont.  When I see one approaching me now my left hand goes out in front of me between me and them, and my right hand goes into my pocket and around my P-3AT.  "Sorry, can't help you." before they even open their mouths.

The last person I gave $3 to so he could "buy gas to get his kids home" ran across the street away from the gas pumps, likely to buy crack.  I've seen too many young couples, with children, pregnant again, arguing with the cashiers at the grocery store about what WIC will and wont buy for them, and then using cash to buy their beer and pizza.

I worked hard, got an education, payed off my debt from it.  I pay taxes.  The government throws it away to losers.  I'm not going to do any more to enable them.

+1

L

I never give anything, however, I was in San Fran on business a while back and a guy had a sign "why lie, I need a beer" so I gave him a couple of bucks.

after working in center city philly for years i dont help anyone (on the street).

99% are bullshit sob stories, at least in center city.

I dont even stop or respond on the street anymore when they try to get my attention. I'm not a walking charity and i can't help them all.

I choose not to be an enabler.  If they want food, or whatever go get a job ya lazy bums.  If they got time to beg they got time to work.  I'd rather give to the Salvation Army, at least they would make better use of the money to help those in real need.

Show me the fella sitting on the steps at a gas station with a gas can by him, and I will help him out.



Show me a couple of people trying to get by who I think could use a hand, I will help out.  This pertains to the story about the older fella who gave the guy and his gal a couple hundred bucks.



Show me people at high traffic areas wanting money and I tend to offer to buy them food and just smile as they get irate and say they only want money.



I have been burned a lot when younger, seen food thrown in the trash and rarely seen someone getting into their car as they are headed home for the day and their car was a whole lot nicer and newer than my car and I worked a crappy job while they stood out there begging.



I might give money to someone saying they just wanted beer money.  I like originality and honesty.



These days I do have a tendancy to tell them to just go talk to obama and ask about that hope and change.

Wow. What a dumbass.

Yeah, everyone knows you're supposed to let random weirdos approach your car as they please....after all, they are less fortunate.

There are generally enough social programs out there that these people could qualify for if they made the effort. Its their choice to stand on the corner and beg. Not to mention that many of the beggars in certain locations in my area  are not truly destitute, they're just looking for free cash. One commune in particular works certain intersections pretty regularly during warmer months.

The folks who really need attention are the bums with mental issues. Those used to be in mental facilities til their supporters managed to get most of those closed. They aren't really all *there* and may not be capable of looking out for themselves.

Fuck em.

+1

Brandishing a firearm is retarded and illegal.  If you pull it, you better use it.

I used to run an all ages club in Louisville, there was this old homeless guy named magic man. He constantly bummed money and did magic tricks, or so that's what people told me. One day he was in my place which was also a video arcade wandering around. I approached him to leave and he asked if I could help him out to get some lunch. I said no, and then he said how bout this. I snatch this quarter out of your hand and you give me 5$ I don't and I give you 5$.  I thought 5 bucks is easy money, he snatched it out of my hand all mr miyagio style.


Same place a few months later. Some guy starts hanging around , badly torn up face with scars, plays pool and such for a few days, I then notice he is being a bit friendly with the young chicks that hang there. I knew alot of these kids parents and they all looked at the place as a hangout and occasionally spent money so i was protective of them. I asked this cat how old he was and such, he claims 19 and is on the street. I am now getting a super creepy vibe, this guy is way past 19 and has had the dogshit beat out of him a few times.
   
On fridays and Saturdays the restaraunt next door employed a cop for their parking lot, really cool lady I got to know well who helped me out and vice versa. The next day on Friday afternoon I saw this guy drinking a beer in my paring lot, I approached her explained he said he was 19 and could she do an ID check and have a chat and see what the deal is and that the guy seems a bit friendly with my young customers? She approaches him asks him for ID because he is drinking and he hands her a couple of cards and then turns and runs.  An hour or 3 later the bosses brother and I are grabbing lunch a bock away and see the guy and then see a pair of plain clothes cops grab him. This motherfucker fights like a lion, one cop tagged him in the back of the thigh like 10 times with a mag light and didn't phase him. The brother and I go to jump in and the cops one of whom knows me say they have it under control and end up hog tying him.
     
Later on the cop I knew swung by and told me the dude said he was gonna kill me and that female cop and all kinds of craziness. Turns out he was a 6 time convicted rapist! I am like wow, glad he's off the street. Two days later I have opened the shop and am sweeping and getting prepped for the day. There are maybe 2 or 3 kids hanging out and fucking off. I go out to sweep int he front of the building and THE MOTHERFUCKER IS RIGHT THERE! Just hanging out in front of my building. I am thinking wow, this guy is gonna try to waste me. I am armed at this time with my 6 shot ladysmith 357 and am confidant I am as safe as I can be. I tell him he needs to head and I better not see him again, or I will call the cops. he cussed at me as he walked off. Some of the kids saw the exchange and asked what that was about. No idea, just some weird dude hanging out and I asked him to leave.
   
A few hours roll by, business is picking up, we have a show that evening so it's going to be busy later on. I go out to grab a smoke in front and dude is there again. I walk up and say hey man, and BAM sucker punched him right in the eye. Then grab his neck with my left hand and trucked him into the wall and hit him a couple more times. He goes down with me on top of him and right in his face I say. "I know what you do and guess what you don't scare me, I will fucking kill you if I ever see you again". I never saw him again after that. I did hear he got convicted of threatening to kill the lady cop and me I was never contatced or called officially about the threats.

I unholster and sit it on my lap when I'm in my vehicle all the time.  So youre saying what I'm doing is wrong?  Should I leave it holstered when Im driving through that bad part of town so it takes me the extra time to draw?  

What you're saying is that you either leave it hidden or go straight to deadly force?  A gun can be a deterrent you know...

And I'm just playing devil's advocate here...and of course I have a different point of view being that in the course of my job I draw down on people quite regularly.

Ive been approached on the phantom kid before...Strangest one I've got...  A lady approached me as I'm standing in my backyard (i live near downtown) talking through the fence saying that she had bought the wrong medicine for her kid but they wouldn't accept a return with receipt...

Me: . Um no, not my problem.

Over the years I've been pretty good at being able to sift through bullshit and I've helped out a few folks.

Three special ones come to mind.

One guy that I stuffed a meal into asked ffor my address. About a month later I opened an envelope ant there was a ten in it. No return address. I figure it was him.

The other was a family that said they needed gas and had a hard luck story. I simply gassed them up with just enough to get home and sent them on their way.

Now get this: A week later I get my money back in the mail and an explaination that the woman had written down my license tag number and had a cop she know look up my address and mail the letter!


The third one was like something out of Norman Rockwell's Americana.

Broken downfather/daughter on the side of the road. The father was frantic because here was his shot of the American Dream going down the tubes. He wasn't waooried about the car or anything like that. He wanted his daughter to get to school on time.

Seems the daughter was accepted to a pretty good college and had been the first in the family tree to finish High School. Dad was taking her and there they were, broken down.

The father looked like a hard working sort out of a Norman Rockwell painting and the daughter looked like no stranger to hard work, either. He was frantic. His daughter HAD to get to school on time!

The college wasn't too far out of my way so I loaded her stuff into my pickup, took her, and helped get her stuff into her dorm room. When she offered me money, I laughed and gave her my address and told me to write when she graduated. I forgot about the whole incident.

SIX YEARS LATER: I got a letter. She had found my address in some papers. She had graduated, had become an RN and was doing well, and had plans to be married next year.

Of course, there have been about a jillion others over the years that have tried to con me out of a few bucks, some probably successfully but these three stick out.


My favorite hitch-hiker was a guy in his 70s that had just gotten out of Atlanta. It was about 10-12 years ago and when I picked him up, he had been in the joint longer than I had been on the planet.

Interesting man.

Bank robbery and failure to show respect to Federal agents during the ensuing discussion.

The discussion was conducted with Tommy guns.

Was pulling into a taco Bell and saw 2 bums who had been soliciting money from passserbys. The had a wad of money as big as my bicep they were counting out...

Another one...  I'm in Austin, TX ("Keep Austin Weird". . You know an electrical contractor ought to steal that slogan and use "Keep Austin Wired"...anyway...) I'm minding my own business and a homless guy covered in prison tats...skull and crossbones with "SS" insignia in the eyes of the skull and "White Power" written large across his shoulder blades...starts in with a story that he came there for work but his car had broken down.  He just needed a new starter and then didn't have money for gas.  He sees me looking at the tats and says he really wasn't a racist he says just needed to join a group I'm prison for protection.  To prove his point he calls out to a black homeless guy nearby "Hey, who's your n*****?  I am right?".  Me: . I decide to play along and ask where's your car?  After some hemming and hawing he stomps off "You're just messing with me..."

Austin...weird.

My policy is NOT to help them.  However, a week ago, I helped one of them out.  I was leaving a FedEx Offic (Kinkos) and was asked for spare change...I quickly declined the offer.  That person walked past the front of my car, and I noticed a limp.  After a few more steps, I could see his legs, and one of them was considerably larger than the other...and it looked like it was due to inflamation or something.

As I backed out, I rolled down the window and handed him $2-3 in quarters, dimes, and nickels.  That was my "spare change" as I had just collected it the day before at home.

If I pass a guy that is down and out and he does not bother me, I typically walk back and hand him a few bucks. I normally ask them a little history of how they came about to be in the position they are. Lots of interesting stories. If I am in a hurry I generally just hand em some money and boogy on.

If someone approaches me and asks for anything I typically dont give them anything.

I do have a soft spot for the down and out.

Just a comment. I'l bet you a 10 year LEO can spot the truly needy from the professional moochers from 75 feet away.

I have had about a 10% success rate when calling their bluff and actually offering to buy them food straight up.  The reality is that those who really need help go out and seek the charitable resources which are available to them rather than beg on the street.  Even homeless advocacy groups will tell you not to give out change to pan handlers.

as poor college students my then fiance and I had a bum come up to us in the school parking lot in a metro area asking for money.  He was obviously jonesing but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.  I didn't have any money on me (hence, poor), but my fiance offered him her breakfast, a pop tart.  He looked her up and down and paused and said, "I don't wah no f@#$ing pop-pop".  

I was too stunned to beat him retarded, so we walked away and I ended up calling the police on him for panhandling at the University, which is a crime.

Angels are everywhere.

Question for the day:  Do people give money to panhandlers for the panhandler's sake ... or their own conscience's sake?



I have some actual experience in this area.  As a student, I volunteered at my church's soup kitchen for the better part of five years, on a weekly basis.  

Each church took one night of the week so that there would always be a hot meal for everyone seven days a week.  We were located in West Philadelphia.  Being in the inner city –– and a poor part of one –– we didn't have a problem getting customers.  

Of the posts here, I think Miami_JBT's rings the truest.  There may be legitimate people in need, but their number is about the same as the obese who truly have thyroid conditions.  The rest are lying to you, trying to get you rmoney.  Others here have already posted about how common scams work.  I don't need to repeat those.  Instead, I will tell you how many attempted to lie to US, the people who worked at the church soup kitchen.

After a time you got to know the regulars by face and by name. I'd usually run into Skeeter on the way back from the gym. Earl hung around the law school, calling everybody "counselor".  Then there was also the "soup lady", whose line was always "spare a dollar for soup?"  The regulars were easy to spot.  

Anyway, our "regulars" would accost us on the street and give us the same line that they'd give to you or any other stranger.  You'd think they would know better than to try and drop a line on us, but to them it doesn't matter who you are, they just want the cash.  

Him:  "I'm hungry and haven't eaten for a week, can you spare a dollar?  I just want to buy some food."  

Me:  "Hey _______, don't you recognize me from St. Agatha's?  I just fed you on Tuesday!  What do you mean you haven't eaten for a week?  And aren't you going to St. Mary's tonight for their soup kitchen?"  

I don't know whether it's the same syndrome that causes military posers to actually believe in their heads that they are Delta Seal Rangers.  Maybe they truly believe that their lies will work on people –– even people that know, with absolute certainty, that they are lying.  But they keep doing it because people who give them money enable them to continue this type of behavior.

The question for the day does not have a "right" answer.  There is nothing wrong with doing something to make YOURSELF feel better.  

I don't give to panhandlers because:

1.  I know it doesn't improve the panhandler's lot in life; and

2.  It doesn't help my conscience to enable them to continue to scam money from the unsuspecting.

The most pathetic panhandler sign I've seen thus far:

Please help.  I need tampons.

True story.  I-40 and Meridian, OKC, OK.

There.  I highlighted the important part for you to read.  Even the poster knew what he was doing.

The same ones are posted at the corner next to the building I work in.
They stop women and college kids and ask them for money.
I was downtown one evening and see the same ones who wer asking for money all huddled up together suckign down some cheap whiskey and some quarts of beer.
No help coming from me and don't give them any money.
These particular people are NOT homeless.  They have a place to sleep and are clean looking enough.
They want money for booze and no desire to do anything else

just wear this shit and you  will have no problems  shirt

I never give them anything. I grew up with a father who would scream "Get a job!" out of the car window. Although I know it's not that easy, but sometimes it is.

I lived with some kids in college who were from a very wealthy and generous family who were from a different city we were studying in. They owned some small businesses and would let a select few homeless people in the area help with renovation and construction etc when needed. They eventually trusted three of them, and moved them to another city free of charge, gave them an allowance, took them off the street, even gave them an old pickup to drive.

They took it upon themselves to use the money to get shitfaced every day, do drugs, and eventually stole the truck to drive back to where they came from. Some people just can't be helped.

I like to keep a stack of McDonalds applications handy to pass out. Atleast the illegals are willing to stand outside of holmes depot and beg for work instead of money and take what people are willing to pay them for the work that they do... I'm not saying I support illegals at all btw just using an example of how some people are willing to help themselves more then others.

Most of the "bums" around here are professional beggars, or are homeless because they want to be.  Of course you'll always have the mentally ill roaming the streets since they closed down the loony bins, but they seem to be a minority.

Last person that got money from me was a woman eating out of a trashcan near Mcdonalds.

This, and if you think addiction is an enjoyable state you're saidly mistaken

It has been my experience that those who beg/panhandle dont want to get off the streets. Therefore, im not interested in helping. I work so I can earn a decent wage and provide for me and my family.

Those who have fallen on hard times are generally willing to work for some cash or food - even if its going door to door at businesses and offering to pick up trash or sweep for a few bucks. I have worked at a few places where we "employed" them for a day. I have nothing but the utmost respect for these people.

More like..."I'd rather beg than work."

Before I became completely jaded I had a guy wearing a silk shirt worth more than all the clothes I was wearing ask for $5 to feed his starving kids.  At first I said no, but he kept up the sob story so I figured I'd give him a buck just to be rid of him.

I hand him the dollar and I guess since it wasn't the $5 he asked for he snaps back, "Fuck you!"



Another time a sobbing cracked out looking guy asks for bus fare to go see his wife who is at the hospital with a "ruptured fetus".

Me, "No, sorry, I don't carry cash."

A couple weeks later the same sobbing guy asks for bus fare to see his wife in the hospital again.

Me, "No, sorry, I don't carry cash."



Currently my standard answer is, "No, sorry, I don't carry cash."

Not around here. Around here the shelters won't allow any homeless who are drinking/drunk.



So the homeless who are really needy and honestly looking for some help sleep indoors at the shelters while the drunks/addicts beg outside.



I don't give anyone shit. I already have tax dollars going to fund the shelters that are half empty. Let them go their if they really want help.