I saw this little guy outside a Chinese restaurant last week and I must look like the milk of human kindness, because he started in on me twice in front of two restaurants (Chinese take out and Burger King in the past week.
He is small, fairly unassuming and unthreatening looking black man dressed in clean work clothes. He pitch goes as follows -
“My car is broken down and I have to find a church! Do you know here a church is? Then he shows me his driver’s license.”
I cut him off politely (ie thanks, no thanks) , both times at about that point, so I don’t know what the rest of his pitch would entail, but I imagine an appeal for 5 - 20 for car fare or something similar would be the next stage after meet and greet.
Anyway it struck me that his guy appeared to be reasonably intelligent, not an addict (or at least did not appear physically stressed) and in good health. How much can a panhandler with a good line make in a day? I figure the local area is only good for a few weeks at best before his line gets worn out and he has to move on. Is it really better than working?
In the 70s I researched the deaf people selling those cards saying they are deaf & with that asl alphabet on the back. They did $1,500 a month on average. I don’t know if that’s a con but often those people aren’t really deaf.
yesterday as we were out doing some shopping we were driving around the permeter of our local shopping mall, and as we pull up to a stop sign, there are two prolly 16 yr olds playing guitar with a sign propped up against the stop sign that said…We Can’t Find Jobs!..
Sheesh, with a half-assed pitch like that, I’d say he doesn’t stand to make much. Also, to what degree does it pass from your everyday “sob story” begging into an actual con? I’d guess the dollar value has a lot to do with it. Some guy claiming he needs a buck or two for “train fare” (yeah, as if homeless guys spend the little money they have on transportation) I’d just call panhandling. Some guy trying to get $50 out of you I’d call a con.
I was approached by a guy in one of the squares in Savannah, GA, he said he needed gas money to get back to his home in Frogmore, SC. He must have assumed I was a tourist. I grew up in that (Frogmore) area, and asked him which bridge he would take over the Beaufort River to get there? I would have given him money if he seemed legit. He got pissed at me. I imagine $10 gas money would be safe for a normal guy. I have been the guy asking for money in the DC Metro back in 1984. I got enough to get on the train.
I got hit up for 10 bucks by a scammer once, doing a similar rap (his mom was in the hospital about a mile from where I lived, visiting hours were ending in 45 minutes, he’d bring me the ten bucks that very evening…I fell for it). About two months later, I saw him in the same spot pulling the same rap on some other gullible soul, and I ran to find a cop. I found two cops, who proceeded to argue: one cop felt that, as long as I willing to swear out a complaint, they should arrest the guy, and the other one felt that they had no reason to doubt the guy, and what if I was a nut, so maybe they should arrest ME, and finally the guy just challenged them, saying, “Arrest me, or I’m leaving” and he left.
A number of years ago I was approached in a parking lot by a lady who told me she was trying to get back to Simi Valley (about 20 miles from our location). She told me that she had run out of gas. I told her that I had been there, and gave her a couple of bucks.
As I loaded my stuff in my car it occured to me that she might not have a gas can, or might have trouble getting the car to start after the running out of gas.
So I went to look for her to offer to help get her car started. I saw her and approached from her rear as she was talking to another man. Her hands were clutched behind her back. In her one hand was a WAD of dollar bills. I do mean a WAD. There must have been 50 or 60 bills there. While I have knowledge of the makeup of this wad of bills, I would guess that there were a few fives and tens in there.
Pretty good take for an afternoons work.
Oh, and for anyone that is wondering, I went up and asked if she was trying to get enogh money to drive home in a new car.
:wally
When I lived on the upper West Side, I used to pass the same spare-changers near Columbus Circle every day … and then I would see them in the evening going to the movies and eating at restaurants in my neighborhood. So, I guess they were do at least as well as I was. …
I was once stopped by a guy asking for gas money. I was leaving church and he hit me up. I gave him a couple bucks and he offered to send it back when he got wherever. I certainly didn’t expect him to be legit and told him to donate a the money to a good cause. I got in my car and headed home and passed him at the gas station, putting gas in his car. There was some small vindication. I almost never give to panhandlers, but occassionally the spirit moves me. There used to be a number of panhandlers around my parish that would hit people up for money after Mass. The church started making these “donation packs” you could buy and give them - for a couple bucks there were McDonalds gift certificates and other things of that nature. Since people started handing those to the panhandlers instead of cash, begging around the church has dropped off considerably.
I saw a show about the drug addicts in Vancouver a few years ago (“through a blue lens” I think it was called). The guys were talking to a woman (a heroin addict) who spent her waking hours pan handling to get enough money for drugs through the day ($10-$15 a pop); she said her drug habit cost about $100/day… so that’s how much she made on an average day.
This woman was an obvious street person with a drug problem, though very well spoken and intelligent sounding (in a pan-handling sense). I’d imagine the average person would make about that equivilent in a similar city. Her dishevled look no doubt cost her some “business”, but her gift of the gab, nice (though desparate) nature, and plain old years of experience made up for it.
At relatively the same time I was getting paid $12/hr, so I made about $100 a day too. It’s a matter of debate who’s “job” was more difficult - hers or mine - but the pan-handler’s life was definatley more painful.
I doubt there’s much of a difference between druggies and street con artists as far as the amount they make and the amount they spend wisely… neither is saving up to go to college or make a down payment on a house.
i wonder somehow if theres a homeless people network and they meet regularily on how to up the um “donations” share strategies for bringing in the paper money instead of change, and have workshops on how to look really pitiful