Homeless people / panhandlers

[Golden_Rhino]

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This was an interesting story in Toronto several years back - a panhandler who pretended to shake badly to get people to feel sorry for her - then at the end of the day she would go home to her fancy apartment and big screen TV:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margita_Bangov%C3%A1

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I gave that bird money on numerous occasions. She was rather convincing.

[terencerock]

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There's a guy on the N train in NY who is in pretty bad shape - missing a lot of teeth and a few fingers. But he comes into each subway car and says "Give me a dollar or give me a smile." and proceeds to make each person on the train smile. I'm a sucker and always give him money...he must walk out of each car with 5 - 10 bucks.

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I know exactly who you're talking about. I usually give him a buck since he's always smiling and getting people to smile.

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If he is that well known they should do something with him. Honestly, the idea of someone doing anything other then sitting down with a cup infront of them would drive me out of my mind.

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I've also given this guy a dollar or two a couple times, it kinda puts me in a good mood when you see this guy making everyone on the train. If I remember correctly this guy said he was a basketball coach...I should have asked him what team.

My other favorite panhandler was also on the N train. This guy pushed a cart into the middle of the train and without saying a word or some kind of sob story proceeded to do some magic tricks. This guy had everything in that cart rope, rings, even a rabbit(which he pulled out of a hat). I was amazed I had never seen this before especially on the subway but i had to give this guy some props and gave him $5, I think nearly everyone on the train gave something to that guy.

I also like the group of break dancers that are usually by Columbus Circle in the summer. They accumulate a big crowd pretty quick and the hypeman is like a comedian.

[whiskeytown]

there's one old regular near where I get a lot of my work meals that I'll give a buck to sometimes -

seeing a lot more of them near freeway exit/entrance ramps in Minneapolis, but then I'm out of the burbs and into the hood.

the line I always hear is "I've got a paycheck at the airport, I just need to get bus fare" -

I heard that less once the light rail started up from downtown to the airport though [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

seen a couple just hanging out in the skyways too - once it dropped to -10 around here, it was get inside or die.

RB

[Shilly]

I go to school in Madison, WI, and there's a pretty big problem with homeless people on State Street, which is the main street in the campus area.

I was waiting in line for food one night, and a guy approached me with a piece of paper in his hands, wanting me to read it. It said something like, "I'm deaf, please give me money." I figured that was a pretty clever one, and gave him a buck. I've avoided that guy every time I've seen him since.

One day as I was walking into Taco Bell a woman told me she was homeless and asked if I'd buy her some tacos and rice. I did, and she seemed genuinely thankful.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen was when two sorority girls passed a bum on State Street and refused to give him any money. He starts following them up the street, screaming at the top of his lungs and calling the one girl a [censored] whore. They started screaming back and forth at each other for a whole minute in front of 50 people, until one of the shop workers told the bum to go away.

[sightless]

Does anyone know this one guy in NYC subway who has horrible chemical burns all over his face; I think he works the 4 or 5 lines, I sometimes see him when I ride to school in the afternoon. His face is very disfigured and not easy to look at… he walks around carrying posters with explanation of what chemical burns are, with some illustrations. He just basically comes in says something like , "Hi I have chemical burns, please give me money" and because he looks so disfigured plenty of people just give him money. His face is pretty bad, but he walks around in normal clothing and doesn’t seem very broke. I've seen him several times and never once gave any money, there is just something about him which just prevents me from giving him a buck and I give money from time to time to people asking for money. He probably must make a ridiculous amount of money because every time I've seen him like at least 5 people per subway cart give him a buck.

[miajag]

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He tosses the food in the trashcan and says, "Man! I ain't no F'n Bird! BUY ME SOME CHICKEN!"

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This is where you take a $20 out of your wallet and light it on fire in front of him.

[Sponger.]

I've heard/seen of too many of these types of situations to really want to give homeless people money...

"God bless you sir could you spare some change"
"No, sorry"
"AHHHH [censored] YOU SPOILED BRAT DIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

and then he throws his shoe at you or something.

Homeless people should be ignored. Uh but sometimes I can't help myself and I've given out probably $20 to them in my life.

There is something about going to the market right when they open up at 8AM and seeing a line of homeless people buying flask size bottles of vodka that make me never want to help them.

['Chair]

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Three, your woman can start threads but you can't. How's that taste, soldier?

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pretty used to it...comes with the territory of dating up

[Freakin]

I got a variation on the 'out of gas' line last night.

While filling up at a gas station
"Hey man my car got a flat over by safeco field and I'm trying to get a few bucks to buy a can of fix-a-flat"...

It was original enough that I obliged...

[Abones]

I used to go to a bar that had a small, homeless, mexican man that would always beg outside the location. Everything the man said was incomprehensible, but he was "bum-famous" in this area.

One night the man made it inside the bar(nice owner) and he ended up sitting next to me and my friends. He was sort of annoying and wouldn't leave us alone, but again none of us could understand a single world. By the time we were all drunk I started enjoying this insane mans company. I ended up buying him a few drinks through the course of the night.

I normally do not give anything to homeless people.