oh god ive heard it all. one time i had an extra burger and a bum asked for money for food. when i offered the burger, hes said he wanted money so i didnt give him squat.

A lady said that she ran completely out of gas and that she needed money to get gas... uh :huh:

A common scam here is having some mexicans call your house and saying that they A: painted your stuff or B: Are related to you and they want to meet with you. of course all you have to do is play along and then you come to find out its a bunch of bull and that they want to meet you to con you or mug you and it has happened several times.

Get them to meet you near a local Immigration Office. Tip off the officials at said building and watch the scrambling fun ensue.

I absolutely hate beggars. Yet, for some reason, when I was in Boston a couple of years ago, I handed out money to two of them. I suppose because the one guy was pretty cool, he had an AC/DC shirt on and was hanging out at Burger King. He wanted a burger. I told him to go ahead of me in line and order his food. He did, and all he ordered was a dollar menu burger. I gave him three dollars and wished him luck. The other was a cracked out lady in Cambridge. She came up to me and started telling me her sob story about her starving kids and this and that. Even as she was telling me the story, I took a dollar out of my pocket and basically told her to shut up and go buy her crack, and threw the dollar at her. She wasn't particularly displeased with my comment. She thanked me for the dollar as I walked off. She was still out there an hour later and she actually came up to me again. I told her to [censored] off that time, and she did. :shrug: I was in a bad mood.

Now Walt, tweaker's gotta a make a living too! :violin: Was this Fairfield, California she was speaking of? If so I'm totally surprised you were hit up (not). :yucky:

:rofl:

There are tons of homeless people where I live, they have camps behind a bunch of stores. The one thing I have noticed though, every homeless guys dog looks like its in the best shape of its life, so weird.

Well I always buy the dogs a can of food and feed it to them.

I used to live in Japan and there was a HUGE problem with old people getting scammed by what they call the "It's me!" scam.

Somebody would randomly call old people and say "It's me! I'm in trouble, I need some money."

- "Who?"

- "it's me, I owe some money to a loanshark and they are gonna cut off my pinky if I don't pay!"

- "Who?"

- "It's me! Send the money to this account, hurry!"

- "Ok." (a lot of them would just send the money, thinking it was their son or one of their grandkids)

You realize that the woman is probably going to buy tobacco or beer with that, right?
I would have laughed and walked away.

Me too, but it was in front of a grocery store. It was a well-to-do looking lady, too, and there was a gas station and several atms within walking distance. I said I didn't have anything to give and the person didn't press me about it and just walked away.

When I was in Germany, I almost got svckered by a gypsy. The fiend! I hope basemant cat eats her socks. And actually, she did get away with a few euros. =/ What can I say, I was naive back then.

I saw one in Paris who sat down on the pavement and then hid her shoes, so as to look barefoot and destitute. Occasionally a gangmaster would come by and take away the money she had so far.

Round here... we look up to beggers :foodndrink:

If I gave $5 to every bum that I saw, I'd be a bum myself.

Sometimes they go on the subway, and panhandle in there. It's an excellent tactic, since people can't easily avoid you, but it does require a major investment: $3.

There's this also one guy who holds open the door to the coffee shop in hopes for some money.

At least some of the beggars are honest.

I'm really creeped out by all those people who pretend to be deaf and put pins or buttons or junk on everyone's laps and then try to collect money.

Which fairfield are you talking about, OP? Wouldn't happen to be in New Jersey, would it?

When I lived on the coast we had a ton of vagrants/bums in my neighborhood. It was a tourist area a few blocks from the ocean so they seemed to gravitate there for the easy pickings and mild climate. I was going to work early one morning and our trash dumpster was kept in a little "corral" with a gate on it. I was carry my bag of garbage to it on the way to my car and I swung open the gate and there was this hobo there digging in it that kind of looked like http://i51.tinypic.com/ixwns0.jpg After I said "holy crap!" he muttered some obscenity and went back to digging in our dumpster. :shocking: He absolutely reeked of filth, alcohol and cigarettes. It bothers me to this day to think there are people living on the street like that (and needless to say I opened the gate to the dumpster enclosure a bit more carefully from then on).

Something similar happened to me a few months ago, only my bum was actually filling up his car and he put more in than he could afford, so I gave him $3.00 so he wouldn't have to be embarrassed about his fuel being siphoned by the store manager.

What makes him a bum is that he was obviously strung out on something terrible because he couldn't stop twitching.... Or blink. :blink:

That's funny coz i had a probate lawer ... who reeked of filth, alcohol and cigarettes too ... the only differnce was he fleeced me for ￡100.000 ... it was just like poetry in motion... :facepalm:

I've only seen one bum in my life so far (or at least one thats asked me for money the other was some crack pot i saw walking out of a store with a permanent marker up his nose when i was 7...) any way about my bum "story" this really bearded guy comes up to me and ask me for money and i reply by saying im broker than you (he had a cup of change)

I have too many stories involving beggars to tell. One actually offered to be my bodyguard because I gave him $5. I politely declined.

Never had that problem in Metro. Though I did hear about someone cutting a panhandler with a pocket knife in front of the foggy bottom station.

I remember a beggar me and my family came across in Vancouver, he was actually really nice. He told some jokes, helped us find our way around, and asked for money. He was a nice guy, so we gave him $15 or something.

I have been scammed before, but not anymore.
the sad thing is I can't tell who is legit or not, so the people who are truly in need lose out.

Well was she hot? :hubbahubba:

Edit: something like that never happened to me :/

damn double post