I just turned away a man pleading for money for his child's inhaler from my door at 10:30 at night

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

WHen I moved into my new place I had a guy that kept offering to mow my lawn for me, even though he looked like he lived in a dumpster. I kept telling him no, and not kindly either. Last time he came by he asked if he could borrow my mower! I told him it had a bent blade (which it did) and he said he had a spare. Of course.

There was one time I did give money away to someone in a parking lot. She’d pulled in towards the back and was talking on a cellphone, sounding lost. When she hung up, me and EvilGF told her how to get back to the highway and get back to where she was going. She then asked if we knew where any homeless shelters were because she didn’t have enough gas money to get to Salem, about 40 miles away. We gave her a bunch of change and she was effusive with gratitude. She talked a lot.

I dunno, I normally don’t give change to anyone unless they’re street performers, but she was either an excellent actor or the real deal.

82

If our local transient population is any indication, they hang out in a public area and exchange details; for the more technologically capable transients, there’s email and MySpace for keeping in touch with long distance panhandling buddies.

ETA: The email/MySpace thing only works if there’s free access to internet. In my county, the public library offers internet access for free to anyone who walks in and doesn’t cause a ruckus.

83

Bumping this thread because something very similar to this happened at my home today while I was at work.
The woman claimed to be a “neighbor” who needed to “borrow” $30 for their kid’s inhaler.
My family member who answered the door gave her the money. :smack: He looked at me like I was crazy when I asked him if he had asked to see an ID to prove she lives in our neighborhood.
I do feel bad for my family member because he is unemployed (having a very hard time finding work–long story) and really, really doesn’t deserve to be scammed like this…but I know the reason he did it is because he is a kind-hearted guy. I think it simply never occurred to him that someone would be so brazen as to lie about such a thing. When he first told me about what happened and I brought up the idea it might be a scam, he told me “I’d rather be scammed than not help someone who really needed it”.

I’m kind of nervous now, worried that now we have been identified as an “easy mark” or that there may be more trouble because they now know we keep cash in the house. I suspect that the family member would never ever tell the police about what happened though because he would be embarrassed to admit he was scammed.

This is worse than when my boyfriend invited a roofing company that had been soliciting business door-to-door to give us an informational presentation. I was very wary of it because I’ve always heard that reputable companies don’t solicit business that way. Either I’m very cynical or the people in my life are very trusting. :slight_smile:

84

When I was in 4th grade there was a black man that would ask us kids for cigarettes when we got off the bus (about 8 years ago.) He was completely serious. This just reminded me of that :slight_smile:

85

Had a similar thing happen to me a few months ago.

I was driving through a residential street in an affluent neighborhood when I saw a woman standing next to a car parked along the side of the street. She flagged me down. I parked my car near her car and walked over to her. There was a young boy strapped to a car seat in the backseat of her car. She was very shabbily dressed in old, dirty clothes.

Me: Is something wrong?

Her: Yes. I was taking my son to the Children’s Hospital when I ran out of gas. I need some gas money.

Me: Well, if your son needs emergency medical attention, I can call an ambulance. If it’s not a super emergency, I can take you and your son to the hospital, and you can deal with your car later.

Her: No, someone is coming to pick me up. But I need money for gas.

Me: Well, I’m not going to give you money for gas. But I am willing to give you and your son a ride to the hospital, or call an ambulance.

Her: No thanks, never mind.

86

When I was delivering drugs to nursing homes, I was hit up for money nearly every night. The standard story, told by men, was that his pick up truck was out of gas, sitting in a vacant lot with his wife and baby daughter waiting for him to get back with enough money to buy gas. There were nights when I would hear that exact story several times; it was as though they all had memorized the same script. I told one guy that the vacant lot must be absolutely huge, given the space needed for all the out of gas pickup trucks parked there; for a few moments, I was certain that my smart mouth had just got me killed but he finally walked away, cursing.

I think my favorite took place in Homestead. Florida: A HUGE guy insisted on shaking my hand while telling me he needed money for gas to get to his job as a “civil servant” at the Homestead Air Force Base. He managed to work the words “civil servant” into his line of BS probably twenty times in a three minute conversation, right up until the moment I told him that I lived in Homestead and was very aware that Hurricane Andrew, just a few months previously, had put that particular base in mothballs. That was another time I thought my smart mouth was about to get me killed; luckily there were witnesses----it all took place in a Walgreen’s parking lot.

87

Definitely a scam. If the child was going to the hospital they would get inhalers or whatever they needed there.

The “don’t carry cash” thing is pretty effective. Wonder what they will come up with to counter that?

88

Personal credit swipers?

89

A couple of weekends ago, I was driving home down some gravel back roads, when a scruffy woman flagged me down. Apparently her car had broken down on the main road, and she was wandering around looking for help. The problem is that the main road was about 3 Km away and she had to have wandered past 20 or so houses on her way.

When I mentioned this to her, she said (in her Eastern European accent) that she had come through the forest, and didn’t pass any houses. Really? Instead of walking down the road, you walked 3 Kms through virgin forest?

I got out my cell phone and told her I’d get help, i.e. the cops. No! She didn’t need the police, just a ride back to her car. “Do you theenk I’m goink to keel you?” she asked. No, I responded but the police should be able to help you out better than I.

So, I called the cops and the dispatcher said someone would be right there. The potential scam artist started walking away on her own. I still have no idea what her angle was, but her story just didn’t add up at all.

As I’m waiting there another car pulls up, rolls down his window and the young guy inside says “Can I help you?” So, I tell him the story, and point to the woman wandering away. He told me his brother owns the property behind us, and that his brother was wondering why I was just sitting at the side of the road.

I know who owns the property, I told him. I know that Mike Fisher and Carrie Underwood are building their new house there.

I think I saved Carrie Underwood’s life, or something.

The police showed up minutes later, and the woman was still visible on the road. I left and have no idea how it all turned out.

90

One time downtown I was approached by a guy asking for a few bucks because he needed insulin for his little boy, who was waiting in the car a few blocks away. It was an obvious scam, but it was a hot day and afterwards I wished I’d offered to call 911, since the boy was obviously going to be in danger from a hot car and lack of insulin.

91

I had the opposite happen. A friend and I were leaving a pizza joint with leftovers in a box. A homeless guy asked if he could have them because he was hungry. It’s the only thing I’ve given to a panhandler in Chicago.

92

“There’s an ATM near here.”

93

I vote addict. There are too many things wrong with the guy’s story. It would’ve been a slightly better story if the guy’s wife had gone in the ambulance with the kid and the guy needed gas money to get to the hospital. Still, the lack of credit card, check, debit card, family, friends, siren, etc., is a big red flag. Why didn’t he get money from the college kids who saw it happen?

Awhile back it was common here to see a couple of people on a street corner with a sign that said they were missionaries on their way to New Mexico and they needed money to repair their car. It was different people, but always New Mexico. I was often tempted to stop and tell them that God must want missionaries here rather than in New Mexico.

94

They can be both. I once was involved in the prosecution of a couple who would get the names of all the religious types in a town, then go to that town around sunset and visit. He had a long Jesus beard (deliberately) and would knock on the door and say he and his wife needed room for the night. The wife would then emerge holding a baby. No religious person needed reminding about the “but there was no room at the Inn” thing.

Kind hearted souls would put them up for the night, and offender would give them the benefit of his religious insights at length (he had a good Jesus patter).

But they wouldn’t move. They’d rearrange the furniture, insist the family change its routine to work around them, and so on. When finally the host family had enough, he would adopt the pose of righteous anger and rebuke them in the name of the Lawd for not being sufficiently caring and helpful to those in need, etc. Once he’d cleaned out the town of suckers, he’d move on (having picked up the names of suckers in the next town as part of his schtick).

Getting arrested from time to time was just a cost of business. For my role in the prosecution, I got a fabulous personal Letter of Smiting from him. Told me about how my soul was damned forever, blahdiblah. I probably still have it somewhere.

I am sure he was genuinely religious (albeit slightly delusional) in that self-serving way that some people have of seeing all the worldly benefits for them and none of the obligations. Like a bottom-end televangelist, I guess.

Eventually, he went to trial for some charge, and in front of the jury panel waiting around to be selected, he objected to all the women in the panel because of some biblical passage that said women should not be judges or whatever. That didn’t end well.
That said, I’ve been caught without money. In the days before mobile homes, my car broke down and I needed rescuing. No money for a call from a phonebox, so I knocked on a door nearby and asked to use the phone. I got suspicious looks, but they were kind enough to let me in and use the phone. I was a skinny kid and not asking for money I guess.

95

“That’s a great idea. You wait here, I’ll be right back.” :smiley:

96

If someone actually showed up at my house I’d probably either not answer or tell them to pound sand, but if I’m out and about with some change in my pocket, I’ll often toss them a buck or so. But the quality of their story counts. For a while there was a gentleman who hung around grocery store/Walmart parking lots, who always had the same “ran out of gas, kids in the car, cold outside etc…” tale. The 3rd time I heard it, I leveled with him. “Look, you’ve given me that same story twice in the past 6 months. I gave you money both times, but you’re just being unimaginative now. At least give me a good story!” Remarkably, he was unfazed and said “Yeah, but this time my car really IS out of gas…”
I told him he’d have more luck if he got more creative.

97

First question: “What kind of insulin does he use?” If the answer is anything but, “Uhhhh…” or some obviously made-up kind of drug, I might try to help them. Or I would give them the contact info for the local Diabetes Foundation. Or offer to get in touch with them myself. Having so many family members with diabetes would be a huge benefit in this situation.

98

I’ve had this happen a couple of times in my middle class neighborhood.

Both of these people were obviously high as a, um, kite. The one woman was selling magazines, asked for cigarettes and spare change and blew her cool when I turned her down. She blamed me that she wouldn’t be able to feed her babies. Whoa, girl. Save your cigarette money to buy baby food. First things first.

The other was searching for her son and on his bicycle at about midnight. She saw my daughter and I on our front porch and stopped because she was out of cigarettes. We were both a little frightened by her erratic behavior and I was about to call the police when she left.

Then, twice there have been young people collecting money/food for the poor who couldn’t produce evidence of the agency they supposedly represented.

Funny thing is that I do quite a bit of volunteer work and enjoy helping people. Just ask me. But try to scam me and I shut the door.

Most people who do this are probably pretty desperate because of bad luck, poor choices, whatever. Nothing is much worse than facing withdrawal and, faced with the possibility, people will do things they wouldn’t normally do.

And I think we’ll see more of this behavior in the future. Times are rough.

99

I insist that you dig this letter up and share it. Or your soul WILL be damned forever.

100

If I had a neighbor who had a problem with weird strangers with weird stories, I certainly wouldn’t want my well-intentioned, kind-hearted neighbor encouraging weird strangers to hang around my neighborhood. Kind-hearted neighbors are always welcome, but don’t be naive, either.

Especially because we’re kind of isolated here.

And I NEVER keep cash in the house. Unless you count the dish of pennies, or the cup of quarters for laundry and the bus.