Homeless people / panhandlers

[Big Poppa Smurf]

This isn't about homeless people, but I'm pretty sure two teenage kids working as movie ticket sellers were asking for donations for "disabled kids" and then keeping the profits. There was no mention anywhere else of the charity and saying "disabled kids" isn't PC, but I let them keep my change anyway for the sheer audacity of their scam.

[ginko]

I tried to a give bum lady a fresh taco bell burrito but she denied me, "Oh, I ate one earlier"..

[Clayton]

I'm glad someone mentioned Bush man from Pier 39. Is it weird that I look forward to him as one of the things to see whenever I visit S.F., up there with the clam chowder from afformentioned pier 39?

[imitation]

I'd never seen a homeless person before I went to USA when I was 10 for a holiday, I was pretty freaked out about how many there were. In San Francisco some a guy dressed as a lady came into the pizza shop we were eating at like 10 at night and had some story about having a job interview, it didn't make a lot of sense but he/she was amusing so my mum gave him 10 or 20 bucks something ridiculously large enough that the pizza guy told her off.

[fish2plus2]

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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.

[fish2plus2]

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I last gave money to a panhandler about fifteen years ago.

Not quite panhandler, but an interesting scam.

I was seventeen and leaving the lovely Royal Palace strip club in Washington DC at about 2am with a couple of friends. On our way back to the car there is a black dude with dreadlocks sitting on a bench in the little park/green island we have to walk through to get back to the car. The area is deserted, but he doesn't seem threatening. He is wearing a Bob Marley tee shirt and is under the lights and has charcoals and a sketch pad.

As we walk by he says, "hey guys can you help me out real quick, I am not asking for money". Being polite kids from the suburbs that stops us. What he asks seems harmless, if a bit odd. He points to my friend Dave and says, "I'm an art student and I have to submit a dozen profiles tomorrow done in under five minutes for a project. I promise this will take like two minutes. Can you just stand there and let me draw your profile?"

We are drunk and had seen titties so we were inclined to agree to any reasonable request. Dave stands there and the guy draws a pretty decent profile in charcoal, but it really isn't much different from a caricature artist. He finishes in a couple minutes. Just before we leave he says, "so how much do want to buy this for"? We started to laugh, but he says, "I'll sell it to you for $100".

At that moment three guys come around the building on the opposite side of the park, one of them isn't exactly limping, but he is leaning on a large stick. They say something like, "Hey Charlie what's up" and converge on where we where standing.

I was naive and dumb but the message was clear. There was really nowhere to go. We managed to scrape up $60 bucks and took off. There is no doubt this was a prearranged scam. At the time I wasn't even sure they committed any crime. They never threatened us or demanded money for nothing. I am sure they would tell the police that he was just trying to sell his artwork. I also know that we would have had the [censored] kicked out of us if we didn't cough up something.

I was half pissed off and half admiring a pretty nicely thought out mugging.

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You thought he just wanted to sketch you? Hahahahahahahhahaa

[fish2plus2]

The reason why someone would try to tell you a joke or come physically close to you is because its a more effective method of getting money from you. If they had any sense of decency, they would sit on the floor and not say a word or even make eye contact with you. There is no reason for you to give them any money. When you give them money they think in their mind, "Thanks stupid". You think to yourself "I'm a nice guy", but really you're just another idiot supporting this guy to make more then minimum wage. Im surprised that people in NYC and SF arent more vocal about getting rid of aggressive panhandlers.

[Anacardo]

Daver,

What's it like being the hardest-hearted man alive? Could you start a thread?

[Anacardo]

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Best line used by a bum to get me was...

"Hey man, I was wondering if you could spare a few dollars. I just got release from jail <rest of what he said trailed off as I reached into my small white-boy pockets and gave him $3>".


I personally NEVER give money to bums unless I'm drunk. When I'm drunk I either call the cops or give them money...fold or push baby!

a) they get my money via tax dollars
b) they have a networth higher than mine (student loans are a pain)

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One, you're not that small, and you've always got the taut, rippling guns with which to intimidate.

Two, stop reminding me that I'm tens of thousands of dollars in the red, thus lower than a bum.

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

[prohornblower]

I generally don't give money anymore. I used to but I got tired of it.

The story I always used to hear when I frequented the clubs in downtown Houston was "Yo, I just got off the bus from Milwaukee, and some dude stole my bag. All my stuff, gone! Gimme a dolla!" That worked on me once, then when I heard it 78 more times, I just laughed and walked away.

Food refusal: Was downtown outside the Toyota center getting ready to see my little bro-bro play an exhibition hockey game in there a couple years back. Standing there with gf, his gf, sister, and couple other dudes, and a homeless guy walks up to ask for money for food (just 1 block away they were giving away hot food. We know because we drove right by it). My girl is like "If you walk over htere, they are giving away hot food for free."

The dude turns his head for a second, and studies the scene, then turns back and goes "Man, I want some NOODLES from KIM SON over there!", pointing in direction of Kim Son. lol. We were like gtfo here. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]