re: New panhandling sob story, how low can they go

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They saw a lady with a starving child in her arms begging for food for the baby. My friend stopped to give the beggar some money. Her Aunt stopped her and said "don't give her money, that is not her child. She rented it from some other person to use as a 'prop' for begging".

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Many years ago, I was in Acapulco with my high school spanish class on a school sponsored trip. When we checked into a nice high end beach front hotel, there was a woman sitting out front on a blanket with an infant. She was begging for money and using the child to make people feel sorry for her. The hotel management cautioned us not to give the lady any money.
We left for dinner that evening and saw the lady still sitting there with the child. After we returned from our night on the town, we saw that woman handing the child off to another lady who then sat on the blanket and proceeded to continue begging for money.
Long story short, the child "worked a 24 hour shift" and the adults appeared to work half days.
I learned something about beggars that day.

I give no money to panhandlers.
I have personally witnessed too many times them scoring drugs or buying liquor.

Wait for the Christmas sob story off I need bail money to get my son out of jail for Christmas or I need bus money to go see my family for Christmas. That’s knocking on the door.

Now I have bought some of them food but will never give cash.

I would support fines for people who give to beggars.

Every Christmas I’d work wrapping presents at our church’s Christmas Store..we would donate new items, set up shop on a Saturday and sell them for cheap so underprivileged families could afford to have something under their tree.

Imagine trying to stay in the Christmas spirit wrapping gifts with women standing there in very nice, clean clothes and (genuine) LV bags. If that wasn’t enough several of the underprivileged loaded the gifts into nice, large SUVs.

Back at another job I had where I was in frequent contact with panhandlers, I got to hear it all. One guy stood out to me though. It was a portly black guy. He was dressed in a button up and tie. The first time he hit me up, he had a name tag with "Pastor" of some church on it. It was a warm sunny day and he was sweating profusely.

This "Pastor" goes into this big spill about his church van running out of gas a few blocks down and yada yada. Usually I had my methods of dispatching bums swiftly but in this case I was amused at the lengths he was goin to for some change. I let him regale me with his spill and gave him a bit of change I had in my pocket.

About a week later, same spot, same portly "Pastor", same issue happened upon me again. This time I wanted to have some fun with this guy. I let him give me his spill assuming he didn't recognize me(guess we all look the same to him, lol). I asked him what church he was the Pastor of, then I said "Yeah we believers need to stick together and help each other." He just knew he had buttered me up and all. So I asked him where his van was broken down? He pointed and said a few blocks that way. I smirked and said "Well just last week your God damned van was out of gas and broken down a few blocks this other way!" And walked off...the look on his face was priceless!

Saw one the other day using a cane and walking like he had some terrible affliction. Had the requisite cardboard sign with perfect penmanship (not what you'd expect from someone suffering his alleged maladies).

On the return trip, saw the same guy walking down a side road with cane slung over his shoulder along with a bulky backpack.

Sorry, but I'm not wasting my money giving to lazy asses who just want to take money from well-meaning folks.

Last year in Sarasota, we were on our way back to the hotel. We had leftovers from a nice restaurant with us, and a cooler with drinks in the back. My wife insisted on giving this 'homeless' guy on the corner our leftovers and a drink from the cooler.

As I pulled away, I saw him throw the food in a nearby garbage can.

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Went to Target and there was a guy at the entrance with a jar asking for money to help bury his 7 year old daughter who died.

I just told him I had no cash(I never carry cash) and went inside

Most likely bullshiteting, knowing his heartstrings story will manipulate the emotions of people. Even if he were telling the truth, there is a better way to go about it. If your 7 year old daughter really died I'm sure a local news outlet would pick up the story and get your message out and no doubt you'd get far more people to help you with larger donations than panhandling at a Target

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You could have had some fun and checked his story out with a riff on what I did to one annoying panhandler with a sob story. He used the typical out of town to visit friends, friends were not home and the car broke down and he and his kids had no cash to eat. I told him my friend owned a service station and I would call him and have him come see if he could take care of the car and that I could meet him by the car and take he and his kids to eat. He did not even try and change the story. Wanted to fight at that point until the Rouse's security guard came and shooed him away. You could have said you think your friend still works at a funeral home and might be able to help him out.

The "homeless" in Scottsdale hate those signs.


They have them at all the busy intersections where they usually try to beg. Saw one of the signs knocked over on my way to work one morning...city had already put it back up on my drive home that afternoon.