Homeless people / panhandlers

[El Diablo]

Feel free to talk about either interesting/funny stories, or your personal philosophy re: this.

I generally have a rule that is if the person entertains me, makes me laugh, or provides information, I give them a buck or two. Occassionally I'll give more.

Guys playing music that I enjoy do well from me. Guys with actual funny jokes.

People who just stick out their hand usually don't get money unless I'm feeling particularly sad.

The younger and more able-bodied you are, the less chance you'll get any money.

If you're injured or clearly in bad shape, better chance.

My favorite panhandler con is probably the "car ran out of gas" and now I'm stranded, just need a few bucks for gas one. I have a few good stories to tell about that one. That's one of the few I've heard in multiple cities.

[Hobbs.]

There is panhandler in harvard square that often stands outside of the CVS opening the door and cracking jokes to people while asking for change. He struck me as one of the most affable bums in the area and I often gave him change over others just because he often put me in a good mood. Well one day I'm walking out of CVS and he asks some kid walking down the street for change and the kid says no but he'll give a loaf of bread the he has so the bum can eat. Well in response the bum says 'no, it's ok I have plenty of food at home'

[TyFuji]

I have heard lots of crazy stories about "homeless" beggars refusing food and drink, etc. I try to offer food whenever I can but I never give money, as a policy. I think it's foolish to give money when they clearly do not know how to use it...

[TiK]

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I try to offer food whenever I can...

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If I have food on me, I definitely will do this. Also, if the encounter is around shops, I'll offer to buy them food.

[technologic]

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I have heard lots of crazy stories about "homeless" beggars refusing food and drink, etc. I try to offer food whenever I can but I never give money, as a policy. I think it's foolish to give money when they clearly do not know how to use it...

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yeah, i tend to give food when i can, no telling if they'll spend money on alcohol/drugs, etc.

[SuperUberBob]

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I have heard lots of crazy stories about "homeless" beggars refusing food and drink, etc. I try to offer food whenever I can but I never give money, as a policy. I think it's foolish to give money when they clearly do not know how to use it...

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Ditto. I also hold conversations with them as well. You'd be amazed at the interesting stories hobos have about their past. Some of them are legitimate.

[octopi]

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Ditto. I also hold conversations with them as well. You'd be amazed at the interesting stories hobos have about their past. Some of them are legitimate.

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On a recent trip to Hawaii, my family was staying on the secluded west coast of Oahu, in a pretty poor area, with some extremely expensive beachfront homes. It was a weird mix of super rich Californians with second homes and transients from the mainland and the island, living in their cars and tents on the beaches. The police would round them up occasionally, but mostly were happy they were in this quiet area, away from the tourists.

One day, on the private beach near our place, we were watching the turtles feed in the morning. Out of the bushes, this leathery skinned, long haired, no shirt wearing dude came up to us. His name was Paul, and he was swigging something out of a canteen. An ivory medallion carved into an octopus was dangling from his neck, nestled into his greasy chest hair. I got the impression he might have been homeless, but we were a bit far from "tent town".

Anyhow, he had a cell phone, sores on his back, and was a war vet. He saved up money to move to Hawaii, and lived in a van. Down by the ocean.

He said it was a fairly good life, you just had to avoid methheads and leave your windows open to keep people from breaking them. He didn't really foresee ever moving back and just scraped by eating Spam and beans a lot. He told us stories of whales, seals and turtles. A really nice guy, if slightly creepy due to the sores. [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]

[dlk9s]

I "fell" for the gas money thing in the Rio parking lot during the WSOP. Thing is, the lady was in her car with a couple kids and she really was low on gas. I just decided to give her $5 in case she was really telling the truth. Hell, that's only 20 BB's for me.

A few years ago, my wife and I were walking from our car to a restaurant when a guy stopped us asking for directions to the nearest subway station. He looked innocent enough, didn't "look" homeless. As I began to point him in the right direction, he actually got on his knees and begged me for money. I was stunned. I told him there was no need for that and that he could stand up. I gave him a few singles.

Final quick story. A popular sports radio host here in Atlanta recounted a time he ran into a homeless guy after picking up a couple sandwiches from Subway. He was in his car at a light and the guy had a sign which read, "Need money for food." The radio host decided to give him one of the sandwiches, but when he handed it to him, the guy said, "No, I want money."

At that, the offer for the sandwich was rescinded.

[kidcolin]

"My favorite panhandler con is probably the "car ran out of gas" and now I'm stranded, just need a few bucks for gas one."

I fell for a variation of that in Boston a few years ago. Standard "I need thirteen", you give him thirteen, and he then looks stunned and says, "I said I need thirty", or other similar sounding combos. I felt like such a dummy.

I generally don't give much, except under special circumstances (either how I'm feeling or they do something unique). The one exception is subway musicians.. I generally give a buck or two to them when they're good.

Some bums used to hang out in Kenmore Sq., right across from a Campus Convenience store that I knew gave away muffins and such at the end of the night, so sometimes I'd grab a couple of those and bring them over.

[Jurollo]

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"My favorite panhandler con is probably the "car ran out of gas" and now I'm stranded, just need a few bucks for gas one."

I fell for a variation of that in Boston a few years ago. Standard "I need thirteen", you give him thirteen, and he then looks stunned and says, "I said I need thirty", or other similar sounding combos. I felt like such a dummy.

I generally don't give much, except under special circumstances (either how I'm feeling or they do something unique). The one exception is subway musicians.. I generally give a buck or two to them when they're good.

Some bums used to hang out in Kenmore Sq., right across from a Campus Convenience store that I knew gave away muffins and such at the end of the night, so sometimes I'd grab a couple of those and bring them over.

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Fell for this drunk, the guy was in a blazer and was saying he would take me back to his car and asked for $13 so I gave him a $20 and then he said no I said $30 and I went into a full fledged drunken fit telling him to give me my f-ing $20 back and he was backing off saying no no $20 is fine. Suffice to say I never saw that $20 again.