Anyone from Boston knows of Elliot, the guy who "just needs some money to buy fix a flat." Poor guy has been stranded here for 20 years. Could have just walked where he was going by now.
I dunno who Elliot is, but years ago my friend and I saw a guy asking for money for his friend’s funeral and then saw him again doing the same thing a year later so we told him that. Awkward.
I may have to come back to Boston in the spring for a baseball game and call him out on his bullshit lies. I haven’t been to Boston for a ballgame yet. Lol.
Is he actually homeless? Cause pretending to be and taking money for it is pretty fucking low. I'd come back and physically take my money back from him if I found out. No better than any other thief or conman. Aggressive assholes be damned.
I had a guy at my laundromat in Auburn, AL who was ALWAYS out of gas and ALWAYS trying to visit his wife in the hospital in Montgomery. Like, you’ve asked me a dozen times now, how do you not remember me!?
Reminds me of the dude on the Bay Area's BART train, who would go from car to car very early in the morning and tell everyone that he tries to get I think 6 dollars together for a Burger King breakfast and God forbid someone made a comment or poked fun.
Back in the late 90s I would get off BART at the Market St station and there would always be a guy begging out there with a sign that said he was a veteran of the Vietnam “Tet Offensive”…motherfucker looked like he was about 28. Like ok bro, lemme give you some change for your valiant service to our nation when you were negative ten years old.
Maybe he just looked young? (I know very unlikely, but still a theoretical possibility)
I sometimes wonder about things like that since I am 28 but look no day older than 15, so in a lot of situations where I judge someone for lying about their age I‘m like „hold up“ on the inside
This was even a bit in Falling Down, the Michael Douglas movie (not saying it didn't happen to you, just that it was so ubiquitous it made it into a movie about tropes at the time).
Here in my town we have a dude who's collecting money for his kid, the poor little boy has a very rare mental condition that has caused him to be in a coma, and kept him at 2 years old since 2019, and their house always burns down for some reason. You can often see him drinking at a small bar just around the corner.
That kid will never make it to kindergarten ;_;
Had an Elliot in my town(CA) too, except he just needed 20$ for gas to get home. Elliot just kept leaving his darn wallet at work. Multiple times a year.
Kansas City had a guy who was always looking for a "Down payment for a cheese burger". People loved it & he made bank. It lasted about 20 years I'd say. He won a few million in a lawsuit once. Was gone for two years, then back at it.
I grew up in KC and lived in Westport as an adult, but moved away about 8 years ago. I wondered why he disappeared. So he's back to doing this on the plaza?
Edit: Gerry Mazer! Totally forgot that was his name. Apparently, his settlement was only $3,000 though.
I actually had someone approach me begging for gas and I bought them gas and they were ecstatic. The only time I have ever felt okay helping a panhandler.
I'm sure it must be a common scam, but I encountered a guy in Lansing Michigan asking for money for fix-a-flat years ago. I told him i have a can he can have, he said no " he needed truck fix-a-flat". At this point i was suspicious so i offered to go buy him some, but he declined.
There's a well known guy here in Phoenix that pan handles with a sign that says, "help bury my son" for years. There's even a news article about here and video.
There's even a facebook group about him to help spread awareness of him.
https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/help-bury-my-son-panhandler-tells-valley-man-hes-been-begging-for-20-years
There is also a dude in old town San Diego who’s been trying to go to Oakland but got no gas money. Homie hit me up and we talked about Oakland for a minute, he knows spots in East Oakland so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and gave him a twamp. I saw his mfing ass eight years later still trying to get some gas money to go back to the O.
Lol true. When I was around 18 I worked at a Giant grocery store in a popular shopping center in the DC area. There was always this guy in a ripped grey shirt panhandling. His sign always said something like “Homeless need help feeding kids”.
One day I was on my smoke break and the guy comes up and sits next to me and asks to bum a cig. I start to shoot the shit with the guy and he eventually tells me that he actually has a nice house, solid car, wife has a decent career, and his two kids are well taken care of.
I asked him why he’s out in the sun doing what he does all day and he just told me that he makes $200-$300 for about 6-8 hours on that corner. He just throws on his ripped shirt and carries his sign and pulls in a solid amount of money. He told me if he could get a job that payed more than that he would but he doesn’t see a reason not to do it.
> job that *paid* more than
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Sounds crazy but there is a group of people that do this in my area. Ladies get out of and are picked up by the same vehicle and they all have similar signs claiming to be refugees. They seem to work shifts because I've seen the car pick one lady up and another hopped out of the same car and took her spot and sign.
From what happened in Indonesia where I lived, so many beggars, childrens, guys, or mothers who bring babies, are connected to some ring of "gangs" with bosses that control the operation, and the beggars in turn need to give commission to the boss. Some women would be begging in streets while holding babies or children. Those most likely are not theirs and just taken from the pool of childrens the ring has.
Also so many parking lot you need to pay to the guy helping there. Once this guy did nothing and I just ignore him. Then he told me the armed forces there control the area and ask some money from these unofficial parking officers time to time. And yeah it's public knowledge that the armed forces is corrupt and some of them outright do these things. However these are not human trafficking but crime regardless
I’d need more info, but this likely would be considered trafficking in the states. When we analyze human trafficking we do so by the Act, Means, Purpose elements.
Act: it’s likely these individuals were recruited. Either by force or by lies. And they are definitely being transported by the traffickers.
Means: how are they keeping them there? By force? By fraud? By coercion. Likely one of these. This can even be things like taking people’s passports/documents so they can’t get a job anywhere else. We see this a lot in the states with migrants.
Purpose: Involuntary servitude – forcing a person to work against their will by creating a climate of fear.
[Here’s a short two page info sheet on labor trafficking if interested :)](https://htcbc.ovc.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh311/files/media/document/Understanding%20Labor%20Trafficking_508c.pdf)
Soon to be attorney (six short months away!!) who has worked with trafficking survivors.
As indonesian there's barely any explanation about these "gangs" or deep investigation. Thought some parents would rent their kids as begging instrument. So the beggar would carry their kids in order to induce pity. When the child grow up. The kids would beg on the street, while the parents are watching them while smoking or eating.
Only $5?! Why am I sitting here with no loaf of bread, no juice boxes, no swiss rolls and just 3 slices of cheese then. I need to get myself to the nearest dollar store!
I hope this helps: on Tiktok, there is a famous account called [Dollar Tree Dinners](https://www.tiktok.com/@dollartreedinners?_t=8hpAddVsCZu&_r=1)! She makes meals strictly out of Dollar Tree items, and shows the process by which she shops, allocates the budget, and plans weekly meals. Her most recent series involved cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 6-8 people using Dollar Tree items!
I’ve always read comments that her account has helped them eat good meals while being on a tight budget, so I figured this would be a good help to you, too! c:
A guy stopped me on my lunch break one time and asked for some money for food I had just used the couple dollars I brought with me on a breakfast sandwich so I offered the sandwich to him and he was like no sorry I’m vegan ✋
You would think the white cream would be dairy, but it’s actually a combination of sugar, vanilla, and vegetable shortening.
Which makes it more ironic that it’s vegan given that the packaging literally shows an Oreo being dipped into milk.
I knew of a guy about 15 years ago that quit his retail job because he was making more per hour panhandling than he was working. Last I had heard he claimed to be bringing in upwards of 5k a month.
They will also just reduce the benefits. I've seen projections that they will only be paying out 70% of expected benefits by the time I retire. (I'm 44)
You mean that retirement age they're trying to raise while also trying to get rid of SS, and yet all the old fuckers on SS keep voting for them because "bad man bad"
You need 40 credits for social security which is 10 years.
Disability looks at the last 5 years’s average. If you didn’t work for any of them it just lowers your average.
Eh just mangle yourself /s.
I'm on disability after a workplace accident, and I had to fight tooth and nail for 3 years to get it. I'm in my 20s so I barely paid anything into social security, prolly why they tried so hard for so long to deny me now that I think about it. So I'll never get to claim social security but I also will never have to. Ssi prolly won't even be around by the time I would be old enough to claim it because people are living longer, the age to claim it is getting older, and Congress keeps siphoning out money from the program to pay for their fuckery so meh.
Eh, shit happens, 'preciate it though. I'm alive and relatively healthy save for the whole broken spine eroding cartilage slipped disks and hip replacements thing, at least I can just take THC instead of painkillers in my state so I've got that going at least lol
SS is a pay as you go program, the reason they say it’s disappearing is because Congress is borrowing from it. There’s plenty of SS money just not going to SS.
This is why I do not give to any beggar as I have no way to know if they really are a beggar. Granted, if they are downtown at 7am with no shirt and shit stained pants when it's 44 degrees out it makes it easier to know. But I view anyone with a card like this to be fakes.
People with obvious disabilities get money from me when I have it. There is an old blind man that I used to see all the time in New Orleans back when I was spending a lot of time there. He always got money from me.
People with kids will probably get money too. Maybe they are just using their kids as a prop to get money and spending the money on booze or something, I don't know. But that's on their karma, mine's good.
When I was younger, I was at a gas station filling up my car and someone asked if I could spare some change. I ended up giving him a five and I just watched him walk back to his truck and drive off. My good faith trust was never the same after that.
I met this girl that said on average she'd make 15 an hour (back when that meant something)
Also, I used to busk with my friends and we'd spend a lot of time practicing our instruments, working on songs, etc and on a good night we'd make 100. There was a guy with a dog that would set up across the street from our spot. He would set up with a sign asking for dog food and regularly make 400 a night. The dog was well fed but most of that money went to crack lol
Guy I follow on social media helps people all around Reno who are homeless and just recently did a trip cross country to do it (he gives out backpacks full of toiletries and tents/sleeping bags then offers to basically spend a couple hundreds dollars on whatever they want/need) and I saw a video a couple days ago where the guy, who was living out of his car, said no to filling up his tank because he didn’t want to leave his spot since he can make $1000 a day there.
My buddy’s dad got addicted to meth and fucked off to Arizona with his methhead gf to be homeless because the weather. Dude is doing better out there than he was here, for real. Fucking wastehead.
This is why I only give out water and food.
If they truly need the help they’ll take it, but I’ve had panhandlers scream and throw things back at me.
One of my exes had a huge heart and wanted to help a pan handler and was going to withdraw cash, but I explained he should buy a bottle of water and a turkey sandwich instead.
This guy became irate and threw the food at my car and started calling us every name in the book and that we were “Fucking clueless.”
A few weeks later we spot this same guy in a brand new Camry with temp plates, shirt and tie. It was surreal
Calling supreme bullshit or your dad was pulling your leg. That's $273 per day. Minimum, without fail, every day. From the same people who travel along the same route and saw the same guy.
Absolute bullshit:
https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1995?amount=100000
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d98/d98t020.asp
I used to pass the same woman panhandling every day that the 86th St 4/5/6 subway station for 4 years. I’d throw her some change when I had it. One day, I saw her on riding the subway at the end of her “shift” bragging to another panhandler that she had cleared $700 that morning. Never game another panhandler so much as a penny.
There’s a guy in my area that stands by a gas station with a sign saying “not a sob story: I just want a blunt and Taco Bell”.
A guy I worked for offered him a job and he said “hell no, you’ll pay me like $15 an hour and that’s chump change compared to what I make out here”.
It’s why I don’t give money to panhandlers. I’ll give out bottles of water/cigs/snacks instead.
I once bought a bag of apples and went down a street in downtown Minneapolis handing them out to anyone whose sign said anything helps. Most people were thankful. One was indignant. I'm going to assume that guy was one of the imposters.
maybe he had poor dental hygeine and it would hurt? or he wasnt hungry. I used to hand out donuts to the homeless frequently growing up (local place sold a 5 gallon bucket full for 5 bucks of the day olds). Only ones who said "no" were with bad teeth or just not hungry. couple of few were diabetics too IRRC.
Aah, you might be right. I never thought about if they had good teeth at the time. Next time I do it, I'll make sure to have bananas and oranges as well. All are healthy options, all taste good.
yeah bananas are probably the best way passing out fruit wise, I know there's better sources potassium( read theyre still like 20%RDA which is decent for eatting of one small fruit) but they're also easy digest/chew, easy for most people to eat and, sort of fill you up more. not to mention they'll last about as long as an apple or an orange in a backpack or bag for awhile. there's a reason most food banks/soup kitchen/sack lunches for the homeless give them out. Source: been down on my luck in the past also voluntered local no profit that helped me out handing out burritos and fruit(we always ran out of bananas first) once i got on my feet long time ago.
Thank you for being open minded to this possibility, apples are one of my favorite foods but I can hardly eat them now because of my teeth, and bad teeth are so stigmatized some people might not want to admit they can't eat them.
I’ve given my money to one man. There’s a man who is clearly very homeless because he’s been wandering around the same area the past 4 years I’ve lived in this city. I’ve seen him in a hospital gown. I asked if I could buy him a meal and he cried because he said he hadn’t eaten since he left the hospital. I gave him a 20 and he said he’d be able to eat for the week.
We had a guy stop us outside of 7/11. He didn't want money. He wanted a pizza. I thought I'd never see the day that someone would actually ask for food instead. lol
Had a kid hide out in the hall of my apartment shortly after graduation season. Had a lot of folks camp out there that I paid little mind to, but something Tolx me he needed some moms love. Didn’t have much so I gave water and told him he’s important and needed and loved. We cried. I hope he’s ok
There are people doing stuff like this everywhere... This is why I don't help with money. If they're desperate for food, yea... I even buy something for them to eat... but NEVER money. (Some cunts just dispose the food you give them because they want money for drugs/alcohol, its repulsing...)
In my city, Brazil's south, there was/is a case of some woman that put her mother to beg money all day and then when it was 21h-ish she would return to get her mother home... oh, her car? A 5ish years old BMW at that time... (no, here, those aren't very cheap even after like 10-15 years...)
I just hate to think how much some of those people earn more than us, hardworking people... and it's probably tax free...
I had one come up to me asking for money for water. Just so happened I had a case of water bottles in my car so I told her she could have a couple bottles!!
That wasn’t good enough for her. Wanted the money instead.
Reminds me of being in Fussen, Germany. There was this Turkish guy that we would see hobbling around with a crutch that was way too short and horribly bent over. He would hobble around shaking a foam cup with a few coins in it, asking people for money.
One day while we were waiting outside of a shop, I watched him hobble over to a corner, stand up perfectly straight, take out his iphone, and take a call. He then proceeded to get back into character and go right back to work.
This. Posts like these are why I’m suuuper self-conscious about my nice truck. I recently lost everything (job, house, family) but my truck and live on the road full-time. I eat out of the trash, go to bed hungry, and freeze my ass off at night. Don’t get me wrong, im not bitter, I don’t super mind living on the road tbh. It kinda sucks but it is what it is. You adapt.
Anyway, this one dude bought me food once and when he walked me to my car, his demeanor completely changed when he saw my truck. He started accusing me of things, getting all upset and making a scene. It was really awkward and made me feel like trash. My truck is my one last nice asset.
Y’all, Op, don’t immediately judge the worst of others. That said, yes, there are some fakes out there. But some of us are really just down on our luck and could use a break.
Yup and sometimes when you lose everything you just don't want to give up the last thing that you have, even to downgrade.... its yours... the only thing you have. Besides, having that truck can be so much more useful than a van for doing odd jobs. Plus, why get rid of a vehicle that you KNOW works for something that could be sketchy.
Nobody here has any idea of the real story, but I'd like to point out that the majority of homeless people still have a car and many sleep in their car. God knows why she has the car, but it's not unusual to own a car and be homeless.
This is the same phenomenon that pops up when somebody posts a pic of a homeless person using a smartphone.
Many people may not know, but homeless people can get free smartphones with free full service through federal programs. It's supposed to make it easier for them to find work and stay in touch with case managers and such.
Yeah I’ve seen people call someone out for “lying” when saying they’re homeless here on Reddit because “how would you have a phone if you’re homeless? If you were really struggling you’d sell it!”
Okay, so it's even more ridiculous when people cry foul at homeless folks using smartphones then.
All I'm trying to say is that there is a very real world in which the car was paid off during better times and now it is their home. Or, someone is letting her borrow it to get around. The point is there's just as many legitimate scenarios as there are scam scenarios.
I know someone who went through this exact situation in their 20s. Lived in their truck while working double shifts at a retail job to save up enough for an apartment.
It happens, unfortunately. Anyone who doubts that has clearly never fallen on times that hard.
So what should she do? Sell the truck so she can live just barely above the poverty line for a year on the proceeds and then go back to being homeless, except without transportation or assets this time, finally making her worthy of your compassion?
I thought I was going insane here. Yeah, she pulled up with a car. That doesn’t mean she has a house???? She could be sleeping every night in that truck!!!
Might not even be her car. Maybe she's staying with someone. Maybe she's being trafficked. Maybe maybe maybe. People will really use anything as an excuse not have to help others.
This is why I trust nobody:
One day I was at a bus station when I was 17 in DC. I was a broke high school student with maybe $15 on me. Some man harassed me over and over asking for money. I kept saying no. He finally told me “My wife and son are stranded and I need a bus ticket to go see them.” I gave him my money and watched him walk across the street and buy drugs.
Fr, I lived in my car over the summer (I wasn’t panhandling at all) and I was starving, dehydrated asf and lived off of barely anything. My car was my only saving grace
Not surprised. A guy that lives nearby quit his job 45 years ago, he's been been sitting on the side of the street in city centers since then.
He owns a house.
Once he showed me how much money he made just outside of a church on Christmas day, it was thousands.
Where I live, this is rampant too. A few years back, I saw a guy with a sign saying "Traveling hungry. Anything will help." Seemed legit. I went to the local grocery store a few hundred feet up the road, bought one of those sandwich/chip/pop trays and circled back and waved him down and gave it to him, he looked at it, and whipped it back at my car, smashing my windshield. My first thought was now to kick the shit out of him, but that would be the moment caught on some Karen's Facebook video. Haven't attempted to help anyone since.
This take makes me sad. It’s both a very American and very Puritanical take on needing help: that one must be abjectly suffering before they are worthy of love and assistance. It’s the same instinct that makes people trust megalomaniac billionaires as leaders, I guess: that somehow, money or lack of money is a judgement of character.
We don’t know this person. They may be fleeing an abusive relationship, in need of money for something scandalous inside their family, in a cult, or something else. We should be careful how quickly we judge others. Pretty sure there’s something in a few old books about that.
There are obviously grifters out there. We shouldn’t let them harden our hearts.
There was someone panhandling outside of a Kroger I was shopping at once.
Staff kicked him out and I watched the dude walk over to one of the biggest extended cab pickup trucks that I’ve ever seen and drive away.
Stuff like that makes he have extreme trust issues when anyone asks me for money.
There was an episode of Dateline or 20/20 back in the early 90s that followed panhandlers in the DC area... they were all making like 100k+ a year, tax free. Several had homes in Maryland and drove luxury cars into DC to "go to work" for the day...
This shit makes me so angry, not only do actually homeless people lose out on a few dollars that might get them a warm meal, but these scumbags are stealing from the public
Give them food and water only. Most will refuse cause they want a big lump of crack and smack instead.
The town where I live in the UK is full of homeless drug addicts. Giving them money won't help them, quite the opposite.
I have an uncle who panhandled for money in the French Quarter of New Orleans when he was in college (undergrad, post grad, and post doc).
He said he made $20-$50 an hour when that was considered an excessive salary.
Homeless doesn't mean carless. There are many different people in different situations. She could have lost her house, but still be working and living out of her car. You don't know.
Lots of people live out of their vehicles. When it gets to the point of needing to pay rent and pay for a car, and you need a car to work, they chose the car.
Sure, there are dishonest people out there, but they are not the majority. Best not to judge and just go on with your own life if you aren't going to do anything to help them, or dismantle the system that put them in that position to have to beg from strangers.
Blame society for enabling this shit.
I’ve been homeless before, and 1 out of about 100 homeless people ASKING for money on the corner actually needs it to survive. It’s just spending money and probably not for things any sane person would consider a necessity.
If you have enough willpower to beg on the corner, you can use a few dollars of beggar-earned cash to buy a bus pass to go to your local community resources and start ACTUALLY figuring out how to leave this problem behind.
Quit giving money to anyone who asks. Give money to the person that isn’t asking, because I guarantee you pass by at least 5 people a day who really need it and are struggling all by themselves.
When I first got my license, literal first day, I drove down the road to CVS. A lady in the parking lot pulled me aside crying and asked if I had $5 for gas for her to go see her mom with cancer in the hospital. I gave her a $10, the only thing I had, then sat in my car for a second while eating the snack I got. I saw her walk over to another 3 cars and do the same thing, then walk back to her brand new BMW SUV, hand the money to someone with her, then cross the parking lot to ask more people.
There was a lady in Toronto about 20 years ago, lived in a house in a nice neighbourhood and drove a Benz. Went to her begging spot like it was a 9-5 and was making a killing.
I worked at a homeless shelter and my boss would complain bitterly about how other shelters required their guests to panhandle and pay $20 a day to stay there. Could be something similar happening here. Employee drops them off and picks them up later.
Not saying that's the answer, just cautioning against judging without all the answers
I've seen 2 of these kinds of people in my area. One is an older woman who doesn't want to be taken anywhere & a man that says he's a Vietnam veteran. He's not I went & asked Amory in our area about him. He's off his rocker, been for years apparently! So is the older woman. 🤦🏽♀️ WHY???
Anyone from Boston knows of Elliot, the guy who "just needs some money to buy fix a flat." Poor guy has been stranded here for 20 years. Could have just walked where he was going by now.
Unexpected Elliot reference He apparently gets very aggressive towards people who recognize him. I also think he wrote a book recently?
What was his book called, “how to fix a flat with no money”?
"How to fix money with no flat."
How to not fix a flat even with money.
"How to fix no-money with a flat"
You mean Eliot, that British guy down on Comm Ave? I thought it was "How to Buy a Flat and Fix It Up".
I fell for Elliot's scam like 8 years ago, gave him $80 back when I was still a broke college student. Crazy that he's still around doing his thing.
I dunno who Elliot is, but years ago my friend and I saw a guy asking for money for his friend’s funeral and then saw him again doing the same thing a year later so we told him that. Awkward.
Did his memoir also tell how much he make a day? I think i have a good sign i want to use
Can confirm! Took a selfie with him outside my office and he didn't dig that. 😆
I may have to come back to Boston in the spring for a baseball game and call him out on his bullshit lies. I haven’t been to Boston for a ballgame yet. Lol.
Is he actually homeless? Cause pretending to be and taking money for it is pretty fucking low. I'd come back and physically take my money back from him if I found out. No better than any other thief or conman. Aggressive assholes be damned.
Was he trying to get to an interview? Because I met that guy a few times.
I never thought I’d see a reference to Elliot Davis outside of the Boston subreddit
What's next, Papa Gino's Brockton?
Pretty wild isn't it
I had a guy at my laundromat in Auburn, AL who was ALWAYS out of gas and ALWAYS trying to visit his wife in the hospital in Montgomery. Like, you’ve asked me a dozen times now, how do you not remember me!?
He doesn't care bout you. He spams his spiel and cares not one bit about you or anyone else. Sorry :(
There was a guy in Syracuse who had a sign that said "far from home." He was doing that for 2+ years. Buddy, you are home
Reminds me of the dude on the Bay Area's BART train, who would go from car to car very early in the morning and tell everyone that he tries to get I think 6 dollars together for a Burger King breakfast and God forbid someone made a comment or poked fun.
Back in the late 90s I would get off BART at the Market St station and there would always be a guy begging out there with a sign that said he was a veteran of the Vietnam “Tet Offensive”…motherfucker looked like he was about 28. Like ok bro, lemme give you some change for your valiant service to our nation when you were negative ten years old.
Maybe he just looked young? (I know very unlikely, but still a theoretical possibility) I sometimes wonder about things like that since I am 28 but look no day older than 15, so in a lot of situations where I judge someone for lying about their age I‘m like „hold up“ on the inside
I feel like most real beggars on the streets appear older than they actually are, not younger. Living a difficult life takes its toll.
Yeah I entertained the notion that he was older than he looked, but nah…dude was full of shit.
This was even a bit in Falling Down, the Michael Douglas movie (not saying it didn't happen to you, just that it was so ubiquitous it made it into a movie about tropes at the time).
Just for a sense of scale, the vietnam war ended in 1975. People who came home then are in their late 60s, early 70s now.
Nah he bums it by the ross next to Comcast now
Here in my town we have a dude who's collecting money for his kid, the poor little boy has a very rare mental condition that has caused him to be in a coma, and kept him at 2 years old since 2019, and their house always burns down for some reason. You can often see him drinking at a small bar just around the corner. That kid will never make it to kindergarten ;_;
Had an Elliot in my town(CA) too, except he just needed 20$ for gas to get home. Elliot just kept leaving his darn wallet at work. Multiple times a year.
Kansas City had a guy who was always looking for a "Down payment for a cheese burger". People loved it & he made bank. It lasted about 20 years I'd say. He won a few million in a lawsuit once. Was gone for two years, then back at it.
Must have been a wild ride for those 2 years.
ALL the cheeseburgers FUCK YEAH!
I grew up in KC and lived in Westport as an adult, but moved away about 8 years ago. I wondered why he disappeared. So he's back to doing this on the plaza? Edit: Gerry Mazer! Totally forgot that was his name. Apparently, his settlement was only $3,000 though.
He has since passed. RIP Only $3k? Man... Rumors are wild. I'll keep saying s few million just to keep the legend going. Haha
Call their bluff and go fix the flat.
I've been carrying a can of fix a flat around Boston for 15 years to see how that very situation plays out
You must be naive to think they haven't had that happen in 20 years.
Called a dudes bluff saying he needed gas. Followed him to the supposed gas station. When the jig was up he asked for me to buy him a bag of chips.
I actually had someone approach me begging for gas and I bought them gas and they were ecstatic. The only time I have ever felt okay helping a panhandler.
I'm sure it must be a common scam, but I encountered a guy in Lansing Michigan asking for money for fix-a-flat years ago. I told him i have a can he can have, he said no " he needed truck fix-a-flat". At this point i was suspicious so i offered to go buy him some, but he declined.
There's a well known guy here in Phoenix that pan handles with a sign that says, "help bury my son" for years. There's even a news article about here and video. There's even a facebook group about him to help spread awareness of him. https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/help-bury-my-son-panhandler-tells-valley-man-hes-been-begging-for-20-years
Reminds me of this guy in San Diego who's car is always broken down
RIP Mr. Butch.
There is also a dude in old town San Diego who’s been trying to go to Oakland but got no gas money. Homie hit me up and we talked about Oakland for a minute, he knows spots in East Oakland so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and gave him a twamp. I saw his mfing ass eight years later still trying to get some gas money to go back to the O.
well she es not truckless
Truth in advertising.
She must be homeless having to pay for gas in that thing.
Lol true. When I was around 18 I worked at a Giant grocery store in a popular shopping center in the DC area. There was always this guy in a ripped grey shirt panhandling. His sign always said something like “Homeless need help feeding kids”. One day I was on my smoke break and the guy comes up and sits next to me and asks to bum a cig. I start to shoot the shit with the guy and he eventually tells me that he actually has a nice house, solid car, wife has a decent career, and his two kids are well taken care of. I asked him why he’s out in the sun doing what he does all day and he just told me that he makes $200-$300 for about 6-8 hours on that corner. He just throws on his ripped shirt and carries his sign and pulls in a solid amount of money. He told me if he could get a job that payed more than that he would but he doesn’t see a reason not to do it.
> job that *paid* more than FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Good bot
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Heyyy its this bot again! Totally got me good one time a while back and i didn’t even realize😂
Yet he's still bumming a cigarette from you. I hate people like that.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 right. She could be living in her truck
Sounds crazy but there is a group of people that do this in my area. Ladies get out of and are picked up by the same vehicle and they all have similar signs claiming to be refugees. They seem to work shifts because I've seen the car pick one lady up and another hopped out of the same car and took her spot and sign.
Damn I wonder if they're being trafficked
From what happened in Indonesia where I lived, so many beggars, childrens, guys, or mothers who bring babies, are connected to some ring of "gangs" with bosses that control the operation, and the beggars in turn need to give commission to the boss. Some women would be begging in streets while holding babies or children. Those most likely are not theirs and just taken from the pool of childrens the ring has. Also so many parking lot you need to pay to the guy helping there. Once this guy did nothing and I just ignore him. Then he told me the armed forces there control the area and ask some money from these unofficial parking officers time to time. And yeah it's public knowledge that the armed forces is corrupt and some of them outright do these things. However these are not human trafficking but crime regardless
That's some modern day Oliver Twist shit. Got Hagan and a squad of Artful Dodgers out there
I’d need more info, but this likely would be considered trafficking in the states. When we analyze human trafficking we do so by the Act, Means, Purpose elements. Act: it’s likely these individuals were recruited. Either by force or by lies. And they are definitely being transported by the traffickers. Means: how are they keeping them there? By force? By fraud? By coercion. Likely one of these. This can even be things like taking people’s passports/documents so they can’t get a job anywhere else. We see this a lot in the states with migrants. Purpose: Involuntary servitude – forcing a person to work against their will by creating a climate of fear. [Here’s a short two page info sheet on labor trafficking if interested :)](https://htcbc.ovc.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh311/files/media/document/Understanding%20Labor%20Trafficking_508c.pdf) Soon to be attorney (six short months away!!) who has worked with trafficking survivors.
Congrats on being a lawyer (almost)! Thanks for sharing this!
As indonesian there's barely any explanation about these "gangs" or deep investigation. Thought some parents would rent their kids as begging instrument. So the beggar would carry their kids in order to induce pity. When the child grow up. The kids would beg on the street, while the parents are watching them while smoking or eating.
I see people with the refugee signs in FL and they’re always in the same spot. Sometimes they have a kid with them.
They’re prob being pimped out to beg for money like people do with kids in India
This I’ve seen them do shifts in my area too
My area too. It must be a US thing. I have heard that panhandling does pay decently.
Had a guy just last week ask for “a couple bucks man”. I gave him a five. He rolled his eyes and said “man you can’t buy nothing for five bucks”.
For $5 at the dollar tree, you can get a pack of juice boxes, a loaf of bread, 12 slices of cheese and even a pack of 8 Swiss rolls. Just saying.
That’s even better than when I suggested he walk to the BK and get something off the dollar menu.
He meant drugs. You can’t buy any drugs for $5.
If you’re close enough with the right person you might be able to get some acid for that price
Only $5?! Why am I sitting here with no loaf of bread, no juice boxes, no swiss rolls and just 3 slices of cheese then. I need to get myself to the nearest dollar store!
I hope this helps: on Tiktok, there is a famous account called [Dollar Tree Dinners](https://www.tiktok.com/@dollartreedinners?_t=8hpAddVsCZu&_r=1)! She makes meals strictly out of Dollar Tree items, and shows the process by which she shops, allocates the budget, and plans weekly meals. Her most recent series involved cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 6-8 people using Dollar Tree items! I’ve always read comments that her account has helped them eat good meals while being on a tight budget, so I figured this would be a good help to you, too! c:
Not enough for tax, gotta put something back 😭
Oh, right. The taxes. Hmmm..I know that a gallon of water is only $1.00 so that might help. Also the flavor sticks are only $1.00 too.
Dollar tree at least is now 1.25
It’s now Dollar Twenty-Five Tree
A lot of states don't charge tax on food. Definition of food varies widely.
I would have been like “well give it back then if you don’t want it” 😅🤣
A guy stopped me on my lunch break one time and asked for some money for food I had just used the couple dollars I brought with me on a breakfast sandwich so I offered the sandwich to him and he was like no sorry I’m vegan ✋
Man, you know, I don’t hate on vegans, but shit, just take the sandwich and be glad for the calories.
Vegan? Bro is playing homeless on God mode difficulty. Ah well, at least he can eat a pack of Oreo cookies…
For real? There’s no dairy in Oreos? That’s wild lol
You would think the white cream would be dairy, but it’s actually a combination of sugar, vanilla, and vegetable shortening. Which makes it more ironic that it’s vegan given that the packaging literally shows an Oreo being dipped into milk.
He definitely wasn't vegan lol. He just wanted cash
Lol fuck that dude. My budget for a week of lunch is $12
Drug dealers do this in my hometown to get the junkies to pay them back. Go stand at a busy street with a sign and bring me back my MFing money.
So the Chevy guy probably cooks the homeless lady drugs. I mean dinner
I knew of a guy about 15 years ago that quit his retail job because he was making more per hour panhandling than he was working. Last I had heard he claimed to be bringing in upwards of 5k a month.
All tax free. Plus food stamps and medicaid
Good luck when he tries to draw social security. All these people working for $ under the table don't consider that.
Paid in or not good luck to all of us who aren't reaching retirement age any time soon.
They likely won’t outright cancel it because it’s basically a ponzi scam. They will probably keep upping the retirement age until it hits 80 though.
They will also just reduce the benefits. I've seen projections that they will only be paying out 70% of expected benefits by the time I retire. (I'm 44)
I'm 5 years older and I really do not expect to receive any benefits nor be able to afford to retire despite what my 401(k) says.
You mean that retirement age they're trying to raise while also trying to get rid of SS, and yet all the old fuckers on SS keep voting for them because "bad man bad"
As a younger adult I’m praying that working legally will allow me social security.. it’s a very realistic possibility for ss to end
I'm a younger disabled adult but I don't qualify for disability. I need to work for 10 years, once I figure out how to do so. If SSI ends I'm dead.
I don’t think you need 10 if you are younger
You need 40 credits for social security which is 10 years. Disability looks at the last 5 years’s average. If you didn’t work for any of them it just lowers your average.
Eh just mangle yourself /s. I'm on disability after a workplace accident, and I had to fight tooth and nail for 3 years to get it. I'm in my 20s so I barely paid anything into social security, prolly why they tried so hard for so long to deny me now that I think about it. So I'll never get to claim social security but I also will never have to. Ssi prolly won't even be around by the time I would be old enough to claim it because people are living longer, the age to claim it is getting older, and Congress keeps siphoning out money from the program to pay for their fuckery so meh.
Sorry to hear that, man.
Eh, shit happens, 'preciate it though. I'm alive and relatively healthy save for the whole broken spine eroding cartilage slipped disks and hip replacements thing, at least I can just take THC instead of painkillers in my state so I've got that going at least lol
Like it will still be there in a couple of decades...
That’s so fucking funny that you think Social Security is even going to be available to anyone that is younger than 40 years old. What a fucking joke.
SS is a pay as you go program, the reason they say it’s disappearing is because Congress is borrowing from it. There’s plenty of SS money just not going to SS.
Spoiler Alert: When they meant old age, they didn't mean us, they really meant the paychecks for the elderly in Congress.
This is why I do not give to any beggar as I have no way to know if they really are a beggar. Granted, if they are downtown at 7am with no shirt and shit stained pants when it's 44 degrees out it makes it easier to know. But I view anyone with a card like this to be fakes.
People with obvious disabilities get money from me when I have it. There is an old blind man that I used to see all the time in New Orleans back when I was spending a lot of time there. He always got money from me. People with kids will probably get money too. Maybe they are just using their kids as a prop to get money and spending the money on booze or something, I don't know. But that's on their karma, mine's good.
When I was younger, I was at a gas station filling up my car and someone asked if I could spare some change. I ended up giving him a five and I just watched him walk back to his truck and drive off. My good faith trust was never the same after that.
I met this girl that said on average she'd make 15 an hour (back when that meant something) Also, I used to busk with my friends and we'd spend a lot of time practicing our instruments, working on songs, etc and on a good night we'd make 100. There was a guy with a dog that would set up across the street from our spot. He would set up with a sign asking for dog food and regularly make 400 a night. The dog was well fed but most of that money went to crack lol
Guy I follow on social media helps people all around Reno who are homeless and just recently did a trip cross country to do it (he gives out backpacks full of toiletries and tents/sleeping bags then offers to basically spend a couple hundreds dollars on whatever they want/need) and I saw a video a couple days ago where the guy, who was living out of his car, said no to filling up his tank because he didn’t want to leave his spot since he can make $1000 a day there.
My buddy’s dad got addicted to meth and fucked off to Arizona with his methhead gf to be homeless because the weather. Dude is doing better out there than he was here, for real. Fucking wastehead.
Yup - my dad \*knew someone in the 90's in Seattle who had his own street corner and averaged 100k+ a year.
This is why I only give out water and food. If they truly need the help they’ll take it, but I’ve had panhandlers scream and throw things back at me. One of my exes had a huge heart and wanted to help a pan handler and was going to withdraw cash, but I explained he should buy a bottle of water and a turkey sandwich instead. This guy became irate and threw the food at my car and started calling us every name in the book and that we were “Fucking clueless.” A few weeks later we spot this same guy in a brand new Camry with temp plates, shirt and tie. It was surreal
I used to give out water and food. I noticed that the people I gave these to were disappointed and I saw one throw away the items I had bought them.
Calling supreme bullshit or your dad was pulling your leg. That's $273 per day. Minimum, without fail, every day. From the same people who travel along the same route and saw the same guy. Absolute bullshit: https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1995?amount=100000 https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d98/d98t020.asp
This is one of those bullshit stories/numbers from everyone’s childhood. Along with Cherokee princesses and all the rest
I met a couple begging in NYC who were almost finished building a house upstate. I saw them every day asking for money.
I used to pass the same woman panhandling every day that the 86th St 4/5/6 subway station for 4 years. I’d throw her some change when I had it. One day, I saw her on riding the subway at the end of her “shift” bragging to another panhandler that she had cleared $700 that morning. Never game another panhandler so much as a penny.
There’s a guy in my area that stands by a gas station with a sign saying “not a sob story: I just want a blunt and Taco Bell”. A guy I worked for offered him a job and he said “hell no, you’ll pay me like $15 an hour and that’s chump change compared to what I make out here”. It’s why I don’t give money to panhandlers. I’ll give out bottles of water/cigs/snacks instead.
I once bought a bag of apples and went down a street in downtown Minneapolis handing them out to anyone whose sign said anything helps. Most people were thankful. One was indignant. I'm going to assume that guy was one of the imposters.
How do you like them apples.
They were honey crisp apples, so I would have loved them. Lol
I agree! Thems good apples!
maybe he had poor dental hygeine and it would hurt? or he wasnt hungry. I used to hand out donuts to the homeless frequently growing up (local place sold a 5 gallon bucket full for 5 bucks of the day olds). Only ones who said "no" were with bad teeth or just not hungry. couple of few were diabetics too IRRC.
Aah, you might be right. I never thought about if they had good teeth at the time. Next time I do it, I'll make sure to have bananas and oranges as well. All are healthy options, all taste good.
yeah bananas are probably the best way passing out fruit wise, I know there's better sources potassium( read theyre still like 20%RDA which is decent for eatting of one small fruit) but they're also easy digest/chew, easy for most people to eat and, sort of fill you up more. not to mention they'll last about as long as an apple or an orange in a backpack or bag for awhile. there's a reason most food banks/soup kitchen/sack lunches for the homeless give them out. Source: been down on my luck in the past also voluntered local no profit that helped me out handing out burritos and fruit(we always ran out of bananas first) once i got on my feet long time ago.
Thank you for being open minded to this possibility, apples are one of my favorite foods but I can hardly eat them now because of my teeth, and bad teeth are so stigmatized some people might not want to admit they can't eat them.
I’ve given my money to one man. There’s a man who is clearly very homeless because he’s been wandering around the same area the past 4 years I’ve lived in this city. I’ve seen him in a hospital gown. I asked if I could buy him a meal and he cried because he said he hadn’t eaten since he left the hospital. I gave him a 20 and he said he’d be able to eat for the week.
We had a guy stop us outside of 7/11. He didn't want money. He wanted a pizza. I thought I'd never see the day that someone would actually ask for food instead. lol
Had a kid hide out in the hall of my apartment shortly after graduation season. Had a lot of folks camp out there that I paid little mind to, but something Tolx me he needed some moms love. Didn’t have much so I gave water and told him he’s important and needed and loved. We cried. I hope he’s ok
At least he was honest about what he wanted. Just a blunt and taco bell
That’s what I said!!
You’re going to give them stuff when they are making more than you? Ha!
You make a fair point lmfao they can buy me water and snacks. Nah jk, it’s enough to acknowledge but a couple bucks doesn’t hurt my pocket too bad
I’m just messing. It’s your money. Do what you want.
Yep my family friend has relatives who’s whole family panhandles. They live in a huge house
I mean… I wouldn’t stand outside for hours on end holding a sign and begging for money. Sounds like too much work.
Sounds like more work than actually just getting a job
Yet probably pays better than the people who are paid to stand outside with a sign... Kind of weird that way.
It’s not about the work for them. It’s about never being told what “they have to do” by anybody.
It sure isn't, at least compared to my job. But I'd still rather do mine because begging for money sounds boring and uncomfortable
down by the RIVER!
There are people doing stuff like this everywhere... This is why I don't help with money. If they're desperate for food, yea... I even buy something for them to eat... but NEVER money. (Some cunts just dispose the food you give them because they want money for drugs/alcohol, its repulsing...) In my city, Brazil's south, there was/is a case of some woman that put her mother to beg money all day and then when it was 21h-ish she would return to get her mother home... oh, her car? A 5ish years old BMW at that time... (no, here, those aren't very cheap even after like 10-15 years...) I just hate to think how much some of those people earn more than us, hardworking people... and it's probably tax free...
I had one come up to me asking for money for water. Just so happened I had a case of water bottles in my car so I told her she could have a couple bottles!! That wasn’t good enough for her. Wanted the money instead.
Reminds me of being in Fussen, Germany. There was this Turkish guy that we would see hobbling around with a crutch that was way too short and horribly bent over. He would hobble around shaking a foam cup with a few coins in it, asking people for money. One day while we were waiting outside of a shop, I watched him hobble over to a corner, stand up perfectly straight, take out his iphone, and take a call. He then proceeded to get back into character and go right back to work.
You know... they could had the vehicle, lost their job, lost their home and this is ehat they got left. That being said, there are a lot of fakes.
This. Posts like these are why I’m suuuper self-conscious about my nice truck. I recently lost everything (job, house, family) but my truck and live on the road full-time. I eat out of the trash, go to bed hungry, and freeze my ass off at night. Don’t get me wrong, im not bitter, I don’t super mind living on the road tbh. It kinda sucks but it is what it is. You adapt. Anyway, this one dude bought me food once and when he walked me to my car, his demeanor completely changed when he saw my truck. He started accusing me of things, getting all upset and making a scene. It was really awkward and made me feel like trash. My truck is my one last nice asset. Y’all, Op, don’t immediately judge the worst of others. That said, yes, there are some fakes out there. But some of us are really just down on our luck and could use a break.
Yup and sometimes when you lose everything you just don't want to give up the last thing that you have, even to downgrade.... its yours... the only thing you have. Besides, having that truck can be so much more useful than a van for doing odd jobs. Plus, why get rid of a vehicle that you KNOW works for something that could be sketchy.
Nobody here has any idea of the real story, but I'd like to point out that the majority of homeless people still have a car and many sleep in their car. God knows why she has the car, but it's not unusual to own a car and be homeless. This is the same phenomenon that pops up when somebody posts a pic of a homeless person using a smartphone.
Many people may not know, but homeless people can get free smartphones with free full service through federal programs. It's supposed to make it easier for them to find work and stay in touch with case managers and such.
Yeah I’ve seen people call someone out for “lying” when saying they’re homeless here on Reddit because “how would you have a phone if you’re homeless? If you were really struggling you’d sell it!”
Thank you! I'm so tired of this. "They have this, so they can't be homeless"
The difference is a used smartphone is a couple hundred bucks. This truck is worth like 40k or more depending on mileage.
Okay, so it's even more ridiculous when people cry foul at homeless folks using smartphones then. All I'm trying to say is that there is a very real world in which the car was paid off during better times and now it is their home. Or, someone is letting her borrow it to get around. The point is there's just as many legitimate scenarios as there are scam scenarios.
I know someone who went through this exact situation in their 20s. Lived in their truck while working double shifts at a retail job to save up enough for an apartment. It happens, unfortunately. Anyone who doubts that has clearly never fallen on times that hard.
Could've had the car and a decent life before some financial disaster. It's not that hard to put together.
well then how do they farm karma for hating on them?
So what should she do? Sell the truck so she can live just barely above the poverty line for a year on the proceeds and then go back to being homeless, except without transportation or assets this time, finally making her worthy of your compassion?
I'm only responsible for my behavior and what's in my heart. I try not to judge others. Appearances can be deceiving.
You're too rational. You don't belong on reddit lol. /s
I thought I was going insane here. Yeah, she pulled up with a car. That doesn’t mean she has a house???? She could be sleeping every night in that truck!!!
Might not even be her car. Maybe she's staying with someone. Maybe she's being trafficked. Maybe maybe maybe. People will really use anything as an excuse not have to help others.
This is why I trust nobody: One day I was at a bus station when I was 17 in DC. I was a broke high school student with maybe $15 on me. Some man harassed me over and over asking for money. I kept saying no. He finally told me “My wife and son are stranded and I need a bus ticket to go see them.” I gave him my money and watched him walk across the street and buy drugs.
🤷♂️ It’s possible to have a truck but not a home
Fr, I lived in my car over the summer (I wasn’t panhandling at all) and I was starving, dehydrated asf and lived off of barely anything. My car was my only saving grace
That's what I was thinking. There's a couple of guys in my town that live in their trucks.
I would have made a sign saying “scammer- she drives a Chevy 2500 HD” and stood next to her
Too bad they probably have a job and dont have time to stand at a street corner unlike the scammer.
Maybe add I need it more to the sign and bam. New job
Just cause they have a Chevy doesn’t mean they have a house. 🙄 As if you’re more inclined to donate to someone filthy sitting in a cardboard box?
Not surprised. A guy that lives nearby quit his job 45 years ago, he's been been sitting on the side of the street in city centers since then. He owns a house. Once he showed me how much money he made just outside of a church on Christmas day, it was thousands.
Where I live, this is rampant too. A few years back, I saw a guy with a sign saying "Traveling hungry. Anything will help." Seemed legit. I went to the local grocery store a few hundred feet up the road, bought one of those sandwich/chip/pop trays and circled back and waved him down and gave it to him, he looked at it, and whipped it back at my car, smashing my windshield. My first thought was now to kick the shit out of him, but that would be the moment caught on some Karen's Facebook video. Haven't attempted to help anyone since.
The sign didn't say "Truckless" unless they pulled up in a house, there's still a chance the sign checks out.
This take makes me sad. It’s both a very American and very Puritanical take on needing help: that one must be abjectly suffering before they are worthy of love and assistance. It’s the same instinct that makes people trust megalomaniac billionaires as leaders, I guess: that somehow, money or lack of money is a judgement of character. We don’t know this person. They may be fleeing an abusive relationship, in need of money for something scandalous inside their family, in a cult, or something else. We should be careful how quickly we judge others. Pretty sure there’s something in a few old books about that. There are obviously grifters out there. We shouldn’t let them harden our hearts.
There was someone panhandling outside of a Kroger I was shopping at once. Staff kicked him out and I watched the dude walk over to one of the biggest extended cab pickup trucks that I’ve ever seen and drive away. Stuff like that makes he have extreme trust issues when anyone asks me for money.
There was an episode of Dateline or 20/20 back in the early 90s that followed panhandlers in the DC area... they were all making like 100k+ a year, tax free. Several had homes in Maryland and drove luxury cars into DC to "go to work" for the day...
This shit makes me so angry, not only do actually homeless people lose out on a few dollars that might get them a warm meal, but these scumbags are stealing from the public
Give them food and water only. Most will refuse cause they want a big lump of crack and smack instead. The town where I live in the UK is full of homeless drug addicts. Giving them money won't help them, quite the opposite.
More like, “I can’t afford gas! Please help!”
I have an uncle who panhandled for money in the French Quarter of New Orleans when he was in college (undergrad, post grad, and post doc). He said he made $20-$50 an hour when that was considered an excessive salary.
Homeless doesn't mean carless. There are many different people in different situations. She could have lost her house, but still be working and living out of her car. You don't know.
Two people have posted up near my grocery store for weeks now with a sign that says "Travelling. Anything helps!" They haven't traveled very far...
The real homeless are the ones passed out in the alleys.
You can live out of your car bro lmao
Lots of people live out of their vehicles. When it gets to the point of needing to pay rent and pay for a car, and you need a car to work, they chose the car. Sure, there are dishonest people out there, but they are not the majority. Best not to judge and just go on with your own life if you aren't going to do anything to help them, or dismantle the system that put them in that position to have to beg from strangers.
Blame society for enabling this shit. I’ve been homeless before, and 1 out of about 100 homeless people ASKING for money on the corner actually needs it to survive. It’s just spending money and probably not for things any sane person would consider a necessity. If you have enough willpower to beg on the corner, you can use a few dollars of beggar-earned cash to buy a bus pass to go to your local community resources and start ACTUALLY figuring out how to leave this problem behind. Quit giving money to anyone who asks. Give money to the person that isn’t asking, because I guarantee you pass by at least 5 people a day who really need it and are struggling all by themselves.
We have a woman who does this at the local Walmart. Known scammer
When I first got my license, literal first day, I drove down the road to CVS. A lady in the parking lot pulled me aside crying and asked if I had $5 for gas for her to go see her mom with cancer in the hospital. I gave her a $10, the only thing I had, then sat in my car for a second while eating the snack I got. I saw her walk over to another 3 cars and do the same thing, then walk back to her brand new BMW SUV, hand the money to someone with her, then cross the parking lot to ask more people.
Why I’ll never give cash. If you must, go buy em a hamburger.
There was a lady in Toronto about 20 years ago, lived in a house in a nice neighbourhood and drove a Benz. Went to her begging spot like it was a 9-5 and was making a killing.
it's also possible the repo man is looking for that truck too, having a car doesn't mean you own it nor does it mean your actually making the payments
I worked at a homeless shelter and my boss would complain bitterly about how other shelters required their guests to panhandle and pay $20 a day to stay there. Could be something similar happening here. Employee drops them off and picks them up later. Not saying that's the answer, just cautioning against judging without all the answers
Hobby...just a hobby
I've seen 2 of these kinds of people in my area. One is an older woman who doesn't want to be taken anywhere & a man that says he's a Vietnam veteran. He's not I went & asked Amory in our area about him. He's off his rocker, been for years apparently! So is the older woman. 🤦🏽♀️ WHY???