Jay Leno had a guy from his staff dress as a homeless, unshaven, unkept, "please help me out", a few weeks back. He then cleaned up and presented himself and described his experience. He said it was the most humiliating experience, but he collected $20 an hour for that day!

My wife was at the local Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. A female (who we know from church) and her 15 year old daugher came up to my wife with a small bag of chips and a candy bar and asked for a dollar "cause she was hungry and didn't have any money".

This woman is at the church pretty regularily needing money for one thing or another. One day she got $50 so she could "get to the hospital to see her son". Needed gas money! He had come home earlier that very morning.

Oh, she lives about 25 miles from that Wal-Mart. There is another Wal-Mart about 11 miles from her house. So how does she travel 25 miles without any money?

A dishonest, lazy person soon learns to become quite competent at manuipulating money from others when they have any success at it.

My wife didn't have any cash, and wasn't ready to check out so told her she'd have to wait so she must of went to "greener" pastures.

 

jay leno is not the first to "study" this. i grew up about 1.5 hours outside of new york city. our local news did a report when i was growing up about local people that were professional bums. they took the train in and out of the city every day and begged for money. made a heck of a living at it from what i remember. my wife will tell you i still struggle with compassion for certain people, but after all the stories how do you know what's true?
i had a guy come up to me on thanksgiving. i was presure washing at the local chick-fil-la. asked me for money, i looked him straight in the eyes said "if i had tons of money do you think i'd be working on thanksgiving?" locked my paid for truck, put on my well earned ipod, and fired up my $1000ish pressure washer and got to WORK!!! knowing full well that he could easily get a job and pay for all these things himself. dishonest and lazy... i couldn't agree more.

 

One time a few years back I was walking out of the bank, has a guy that REEKED of cigarette smoke (No offense if you smoke, as long as you have a job to buy them) and asked me for a few bucks so he could buy something to eat. I had packed a lunch, but was fixing to go meet a friend for lunch, so I had my lunch to spare, I offered it to him, but he didn't want any thing and scurried off to talk to someone else.

 

We reap what we sow and this is the evidence of that thought. For the last 20+ years we have all been encountering the dancers, cheerleaders and JV baseball & football players positioned outside of the local bank, grocery store or service station in their uniforms with their decorated money cans being taught how to beg for money. In the 60's teenage boys would do odd jobs like mowing lawns, painting, washing cars, get part time jobs at the local stores or filling stations. The girls would do babysitting, have bake sales, and get part time jobs at the ice cream shops or burger joints. The main problem is that we are still teaching them that begging is an acceptable occupation. Granted the economy may have changed in the last 20 years but I'm sure there is a better way to legally obtain money than begging for gasoline.

 

yep, offer them food, gas or a job to earn some money and they dont want it....see it all the time. I refuse to give money...if they need gas money I will offer to put some in their tank myself...if they want food i will buy them a value meal at hardees.....if they want more i will offer options for some employment with myself or friends to get them their money but we get some labor.... 90% of the time the people refuse anything but cash....

Also watch out for young people asking for FIX A FLAT unless you see their car and tire and assist them. THey are asking around here and then huffing the propellant to get high....

 

I saw one of those hidden camera shows that follow a panhandler for a day, after he collected a couple hundred bucks he ran around the corner stripped his crappy cloths off, and jump in his brand new SUV. It's just like working for some.

 

Instead of saying "I need money for food" they could be saying "you want fries with that?". They would be paid for it too!!

 

you are very right. some of those a-holes make 60-70k a year begging. the only thing ill donate to them is a big helping of soot courtsey of the smarty!!

brett

p.s.i dont condone the smoking out of panhandlers nor do i do it on purpose but accidents do happen.

 

I had a guy come up to me asking for money at a local car wash. I told him that I would give him nothing, but if he was interested I would give him $10 to washmy car in the pressure washer booth, and I would pay for the wash. I figured help a guy make a quick $10 for 3 minuted worth of work. He told me to go **** myself! It is like everyone says...

 

As a police officer, I ran across a guy last christmas who was hustling soccer moms as they got out of there cars to go to the local target store. He had over $200 cash on him that he got in about 4 hours worth of hustling. That translates to about $50 an hour, thats better than most all of us make in honest wages. As far as the gas can scam goes, many are just looking to huff the gas for a cheap high......

 

Our shop is right in the wrong location. Panhandlers galore over there. I always hope that I get get on the road early in the morning to avoid them, but if I can't I am parked right by our fence working on something and they are all the time yelling to me through the fence....I almost always ignore them.

I visit a lot of jobsites and see ALL of the most likely illegal workers and thought to myself one day. If our homeless population actually wanted to work all they would have to do is start hanging out at the gas stations where these contractors are picking up the illegals...sure you'd have to take what the illegals were getting paid....if the contractor would actually hire you.....he might have to do some actually paper work though for a legal American worker.

 

a friend of mine had a buddy in highschool that always kept canned food in his truck, and they'd throw the cans at the bums... bad karma? yes... funny as heck to hear him tell the story? YES!

 

One of the things that really upset me is when either the rich or the poor trade on another’s Credulity.

I work in a city where this runs rampant, and it’s usually from people in the age group 18 – 25. They sit on a corner with a sick looking dog, begging for money, asking for dog food money and smoking cigarettes, with a "God Bless" at the bottom of their sign.
It is a big time pan handling area.

I have seen people at a gas station with a can asking for money, I usually throw them a buck or two (I didn’t know that this was a successful scam). If I ended up enabling that person to continue robbing from people that that’s my bad, but to be honest, It’s not me or another that they will have to be held accountable. They’ll have to face their creator one day to see what they did with the money from people who showed them compassion.

The city I work for has a very large influx of “lazy willfully homeless” They take advantage of the city’s large homeless handout programs and are even bussed in from other areas and dropped off here. These are the types who camp around public areas leaving the place a terrible mess. They destroy plant life around public buildings and in their meth influenced behavior draw and write all over the walls, use corners for bathrooms. Yes, I walk around with a flat head shovel and pick up after them, disinfect and power wash off the sidewalks, etc etc etc.. I’m a Custodian for the city. I find empty meth bags and syringes all the time, and bike parts…, they love to steal bikes, disassemble them and assemble them differently so they do not look like the stolen bikes. I’m on the phone with the PD often. It is a bad problem.

On the flip side of this there are people who are genuinely needy. And me in my job working around much of the public I know who they are. There is nothing wrong with helping out the poor. But because I know that there are many scams out there I’m very picky about who I choose to give to.. There is allot to be gained by giving. And I feel it is a real bummer that these others who could actually work for a living mess things up for people who are genuinely poor for real reasons.

 

Grew up six months in Wartrace TENNESSEE and six months in BUFFALO New York

this was only in the 60s/70s but MAN, I LEARNED TO WORK!!!

Always was something to do, and learned to help out the folks who couldn't do it for themselves (READ> ELDERLY, WIDOWED and truly HANDICAPPED!!)
for free (experience is what we were told).

I so agree with WANTING to help, but in this day and age I see rural welfare folks making more money than me by asking for handouts (single mother of four..) then selling the stuff on Ebay or through classified ads.
This Holiday time of year makes me sick when I deliver 'gift baskets' to the same address for five different organizations ....

up in Rochester, New York , about 90 miles North of me; the 20 somethings are well dressed and beg at intersections for cash during the day.
The news people followed one with that hidden camera stuff from a guy
who went with a group who met up after the long 'days' work at an apartment to find: five folks renting a expensive , nicely furnished place with all the electronic toys, yep- the nice SUV, and an attitude of " I've EARNED IT!" I feel the same as most of you- If you want something from me-get it from Salvation Army. You wreck my truck, I will escort you to the police station. You will arrive by next Wednesday at the latest......

DO YOU KNOW THAT Courts can sentence you to community service BUT you do NOT have to work, you can sit in the sheriff van all day....

just another reason to ask for forgiveness instead of permission....

 

The trouble is that this is not new. Just new excuses for them to want money. In the 70's I used to see a man with a sign saying he would work for food. A freind saw him in Hawaii a few months later. He was not panhandling on the beach.