Interesting encounter this morning (crazy homeless guy)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This morning I stopped at the local Mr. Mike’s/Dunkin’ Donuts to get my breakfast meal (bagel w/ light cream cheese and a coffee) from the drive through

While waiting to merge into the queue, a grubby guy in a dirty red hoodie approached my car, staring intently at me, with a questioning look behind the crazy…

Against my better judgement, I lowered the window about 1/4 of the way down, just enough to talk

He began muttering something about “god bless you sir, could I bother you”
What’s up?
“My wife and I are homeless, and we need $17 for gas”
I raised a quizzical eyebrow at the strange request, and responded “sorry but I don’t have any cash on me”
“But surely you have a couple bucks or something?” (Eyes get crazier)
No, I have NO cash on me. (Fix him with an icy stare)
“Cmon man, some change or something, I’m desperate here” (crazier eyes, voice gets menacing, steps even closer, nearly touching my door)
I quickly check the rear view mirror, (it’s clear) and shift to reverse, I look back at him with my best “I could just as soon rip off your head as look at you” stare and crazy eyes of my own…
I…HAVE…NOTHING…FOR…YOU…PERIOD! <angry glare> (voice was not raised, just had my patented “don’t frak with me” tone

He then broke eye contact and wandered back to the entrance to the Mr. Mikes convenience store, I shifted back to first, merged, placed my order and drove around to pick up my food…

But wait, it gets more interesting…
As I’m leaving the store, I see Crazy Hoodie follow another guy back to his car, almost stepping on the guy’s heels, the driver gets into the car, and CH steps into the door’s path preventing it from closing, and becoming verbally harassing to the driver, who had parked nose-in, was flanked on both sides by cars, and clearly wanted to just get away from CH…

…At this point, I called Dover Police and reported a “homeless” guy harassing Mr. Mikes customers…

…when I told my co-workers about this, one of them said "hey, I know that guy, I went to school with him as a kid, he was a jerk then, and he’s a real jerk now, and he’s a junkie, he doesn’t even own a car, he would have bought drugs with the money, that’s his scam, he chooses a parking lot at random and harasses people until he gets run off, then he does it again the next day at another lot

I know I made a few mistakes this morning, the first one was making eye contact, next time, I’ll ignore the crazy, and I’ll be putting my Becker BK-5 camping knife back in the car, I may never need to use it defensively, and I hope to Og I never have to, but better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it…

2

They get pretty aggressive around me neighborhood also, its all about intimidation and it works well for them. As far as I know it is pretty rare they get physical.

3

"Sorry, I spent all my money on this Glock!"

That usually sends the aggressive ones away pretty quick.

4

My pat answer is that I don’t carry cash. And it’s true. I walk and take public transit all the time and carry a knife and pepper spray. Have shown the knife twice and deployed the pepper spray once - but those weren’t from homeless harassment.

I’ve found the asking for specific amount scheme to be a more successful ruse than just asking for spare change at first. At least, it seems to work on non-townies around here. Often it’s someone fairly presentable-looking with a sob story about being mugged or some other reason for suddenly being without a wallet and need $5 for a train ticket back home to the suburbs, for gas, or something like that.

I just don’t allow people to get my attention, and if they do it’s with a lot of stink-eye from me first. If they manage through that, then it’s usually something legit, like the lady looking for signatures to get Bernie Sanders on the ballot. She got a big stinker from me until she asked if I was a registered voter - she probably would have had better responses from people that day if she had started with that instead of “excuse me.”

5

There was a church on State Street across the street from the S.O. that would cater to the bums (and that is the proper term) in Milwaukee. I usually didn’t go to work in uniform but would change in the locker room before roll call. If any of them approached me while I walked down the street I had a good o’l time messing with them.

If you think one is going to approach you and you can’t away from it, turn the tables and ask them for money first. Get aggressive about it. It’s hilarious!

6

This is one of the scariest parts of driving a convertible.

7

I agree. But what’s weird is I’ve never had them bug me when I’m on a motorcycle. Even stopped or at a drive through. And a guy is a bit vulnerable while sitting on a bike. But it’s never happened.

8

Because everybody knows that dudes that ride motorcycles are bad-ass and will not hesitate to fuck your shit up. A helmet also works as a weapon.

9

I’ve been seeing a steady increase in the number of panhandlers over the past 2 years or so.

Is this from heroin?

Anyway, it annoys me when I see people give to them. Perhaps I’m overly cynical, or just a cold hearted bastard, but I think every one of them is a scam. Though recently there’s been a guy at the highway ramp with a prosthetic leg and a veteran sign. He’s either seriously hardcore in his scamming, or my theory on them all being fakes is wrong.

But back to the OP, I get approached quite a bit downtown these days by people looking for handouts. Lately they just get right in front and ask, but quickly go away when told no.

10

I’ve had panhandlers compliment me on my bike, but never actually ask for a handout. Though my bike is big and tall, and I wear all gear (helmet, jacket, boots, gloves). I think I’m actually more like a mannequin at a stop than a human.

11

The minister at my folks’ church will take them somewhere and buy them what they are stating they need the money for. $17 for gas. Just a minute, where’s your car? OK, I got a gas can, let’s fill it up and we’ll get you on your way.

Need a meal, ok, right over here to this diner where they all know me. Eat your fill, what else do you need, can I point you to any other resources.

It weeds out the folks trying to buy drugs from the folks in need.

12

If you have the time, that can be decent strategy. I’ve walked with someone begging for food on more than one occasion, taking them to a take-out restaurant. I’ll let them order pretty much whatever they want. I remember one guy looked questioningly at me several times, asking “is it ok if I get chips?” and such.

Some of them really are hungry, and really are thankful.

13

What difference does it make if they are begging for money for food or for drugs? Here in DC, there are always people asking for money, they don’t say why. It’s just “Do you have some spare change?”

I don’t usually carry any cash on me, but when I do, I usually give a couple dollars or so. I don’t care if they buy drugs, maybe a few minutes of being high takes their mind off of their shitty homeless existence.

14

That would have been the perfect story if you have ended with “you’re done!”.

15

We have a big problem with this here (Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti, MI). Many of the people asking for money are very aggressive and sometimes physically threatening.

This past spring, my boyfriend and I are in the process of putting change into a parking meter downtown, when we hear someone loudly badgering people up the street for money. As he makes his way closer and closer towards us, it becomes increasingly clear that this guy’s MO is of the ‘invade personal space and shout, making everyone so uncomfortable/frightened that they pay you to leave them alone’ persuasion.

My boyfriend is 30, 6’4”, isn’t in the greatest shape and is on the chubby side, likely dressed in a much-worn t-shirt for the Melvins or Rush or some other band on this particular day. He gives off a physically-imposing-but-is-simultaneously-somewhat-ridiculous kind of vibe (which I, for one, find very endearing). Just as this man gets within range of us, my BF whirls on him and seamlessly launches into this absurd martial arts pose. The guy stops, mid pan-handle, and stammers, “whoa, dude, wh-wh-what’s the deal?” To which my bf (still in the martial arts pose) responds, with this deadly calm voice, “You startled me.” (This was doubly funny as, due to the loudness and belligerence of this guy’s previous interactions on his way towards us, there was no way he could have startled anyone). The two of them proceed to engage in several seconds of intense eye-contact. After that, the man continued on his way, and didn’t resume his routine until he’d cleared the next intersection. The trick, as was later explained to me, was to make them think that you’re the one who’s crazy. Not sure that I would adopt this tactic myself, but it was certainly entertaining to watch.