Before Christmas, I was at the Westchase Target and there were some people begging for money saying that they needed it because they didn't have anything to give their kids. One of the employees came over to me and said that the same people were there last year with the exact same story. When I would take the greyhound home from A&M, I would always run into people asking me for money inside and out of the downtown bus station. I heard all kinds of crazy stories of circumstance. I think they only one I believed was a guy saying he just got out of prison and needed money to get home but then I wonder how he got to Houston and not further when at that time at least, the price for a ticket to any city in Texas was the same. I did give one guy a dollar and sure enough, he walked out and down to a gas station and then I saw him laughing outside with some other guys and drinking something hidden by a brown bag. Another time, I don't remember the story, but it just felt so fake that I had no problem offering to buy the guy a ticket and he said he didn't want to bother me and that he just needed a few bucks but I insisted and told him I didn't have cash and would need to buy it for him and he declined and walked away. That's why I never carry cash unless I know I need it. I have my credit and debit cards in my wallet and I keep an ATM card in my other pocket incase of an emergency.
we had a guy around us pulling a similiar story. He was going into small churches mid-week services dressed in black with a white priest collar. He would wait until close to the end and stand up and give a story about his car being broke down and play to their "Christian" sympathy. He got a good bit of money from a number of small churches until someone caught on.
One time walking into work from a downtown street...I gave a bum a five dollar bill. Then, he wanted to shake my hand with his dirty hand and I was like "...don't worry about it". Maybe it's better to throw loose change on the ground or they want to shake your hand if you give them something? Sorry...I'm not shaking a dirty hand because I gave you some liquor money. As far as the "out of gas" line, I've gotten that before except it was "I'm out of gas driving around this Albertson's parking lot and my lady is having a baby right now across town at the hospital." . Yea...dude...and you need heart surgery as well. Also, I've gotten guys who say they just got out of the city jail and need bus money to get home. It's a convenient one if your near a jail. Yea...that makes me feel safe pulling out money to give you. lol There's something stupid about pulling out money in any parking lot for any reason...especially with some stranger salivating over "gas money". If you really needed gas money, then you would be walking around the parking lot asking people after you parked your car. Duh.
I had one over the Christmas break although he might have really needed some help. This guy actually knocked on my door and asked if he could rake my yard or clean out my gutters for $5. I noticed his shoes were dirty, soaked, and hanging together by threads. I gave him $5 and told him there is no need to do any work and I also gave him an old pair of Nikes I had and a pair of socks. He kept asking me if I was sure that he didn't need to do some work and he kept saying God bless you and thank you for my Christmas present. I was glad I could help him out.
Funny story...I gave into one guy who gave me the gas story line this past summer...He said he needed to get to Oklahoma, and was on a business trip and everything got stolen...I didn't want to give him cash, and was using a gas gift card at the time...I just left $2 on it (when gas was $3/gallon) and he did use it...
I live in Galveston on the East end (Strand, UTMB), and there are panhandlers galore around here. I've gotten the gas story several times. I always offer to pay for a gallon and they always decline (they are never organized enough to be in a vehicle. Go figure). I never give anything to anyone who looks strung-out or wasted, except one time when a guy just told me straight up he wanted beer. I bought him a beer, and he was happy. The other day, this old guy was asking for money at the grocery store, but I walked up, smiled and looked right in his eyes, and he didn't ask me. I used debit to pay and got cash back for my purchase. On the way out, I gave him a couple bucks without him asking me for a dime, and he said he was going to go buy some pizza. I believed him. One time an older guy came up to me in Austin and rapped me a poem about why he was homeless. I gave him a couple bucks. I usually ask the panhandlers if they take credit. They always say no. It's gotta be rough being a beggar these days since most folks are like me and don't carry cash any more.
Not exactly the same kind of story. When I lived in Chicago, I had no car and walked everywhere. In my neighborhood (Hyde Park), there was one bum who was a Vietnam Vet and he was always trying to sell his art and poetry (both of which were terrible). He was a very talkative person, so sometimes he'd walk with me wherever it was I was going and we'd talk for 10 minutes or so. He had lots of zany ideas about God and aliens and whatnot, but a nice enough guy. But, over the course of a summer, I probably had about a dozen of these conversations with him. But, he'd never recognize me every time he saw me. He'd tell me his name all over again and about his art and poetry. It'd drive me crazy he'd never recognize me even though I saw him daily and spoke with him numerous times. I wonder what was wrong with that guy.
About 5 or 6 years ago I was at the Stop n' Go at Montrose & Westheimer, and this guy asks me for some cash. I was Christmas and I was in a good mood and gave him $20. I assumed that he was going to go buy a liter of his favorite rotgut. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I'd had a really bad day and pulled into the same Stop n' Go. Someone started walking over to me and I just knew he was going to ask for money and so I blurted out angrily that I didn't have any money. It turns out that it was the guy I'd given $5 a couple of weeks before. He had taken the $20 I had given him and bought some flowers and was selling them at the intersection (ok not a big jump up from bum but it was something). He saw me and remembered me and wanted to give me a flower to give to my girlfriend. I felt like a total ass and I learned that not every panhandler is not a lazy bum looking to suckle on the teat of society. Sorry, it is not a funny story, but it is my best panhandler story.
Gas Money? What about asking for BUS Money? That's a good one. Especially since it has been on the rise lately... When I was going to high school back in the 90's I used to ride the bus to and from school almost every day. One time, not in band camp, I asked for a transfer ticket, and kept it for about 10 minutes and decided not to use it, 'cuz I was about to go downtown. It was probably a beggar's LUCKY DAY because one came up and asked "Hey, man, you got a dollar? I need to get some bus money... I need to get downtown and transfer." "Oh, yeah? COOL!" I said, and proceeded to act like I was giving him money and instead reached in my pocket and gave him the transfer and said to him "Dude, it's your lucky day. This one's good for the next three hours to downtown and wherever you need to go. But USE IT, man, 'cuz it's worth a dollar!" With a look of , the wino-beggar-hobo dude looked at me and said "Oh, thanks, man... this is great. God bless you, man." I then decided I'd walk home that day... at about 30 paces, and I guess I timed it right, I turned around and saw that the beggar dude threw the transfer hard to the floor and muttered some stuff. Good times. Why can't these MO FOs get a job? Heck I could get a job WHEN I WAS illegal, much more if I were born here in the 'States. Geez, these freakers are freakin' LAZY. LAZY *sses. I now carry a letter-sized poster in my car that says: "No, I can't help you: feed your family/ get gas for your car/ drink yourself to death. I GOT A FAMILY AND A JOB. GET A JOB, YOU BUM." If this here dude EVER flashes me his sign, I'll give him $5:
I was with a couple of friends coming back from downtown Houston at around 3 am and we stopped at the Shell on Richmond to get some gas. While my friend is outside pumping, a pretty obvious crackhead comes over to ask for some money for gas. Well my friend starts digging in the car and hands him a few bucks. Right as the guy is walking off, it seems like five more people start coming from everywhere around us to ask us for money. Needless to say, it was time to leave.
I was washing my car on TC Jester and Little York one day when some dude came up to me and asked me for directions to get to I-45. As soon as I started talking, he told me he's trying to take his family back to Dallas but he ran ouf of gas. He said he has 4 small children, but I didn't see his car anywhere. Uh....dude, if you have 4 small children, you don't leave them in the car and go off to hunt for gas money. My guess is that he really didn't have 4 small children...or a car... I told him to get lost.
I was in Best Buy a couple of weeks ago and they had just set out about 15 PS3's. One idiot guy had a 60GB and was going around saying how he was trying to buy it for his deaf/blind kid. I'm asked him how in the hell is a deaf blind kid going to play a video game? Does it have braille controllers? How would you even tell him that he got a gaming console, tap it out in morse code on his ****ing head? He told me I was a really cruel person. Yeah, this is coming from the guy trying to solicit money from people in Best Buy so that he could get a PS3 for a deaf/blind kid.
I only really feel sorry for the guys that are obviously mentally challenged and couldn't help themselves on their own. My wife has a couple of "regulars" outside of her building in downtown and she spots them a couple bucks a week. She usually takes any leftover food from her office and leaves it on top of the trashcan cover outside of her building. She says it always gets carried away and eaten after she walks away a little. Those are the guys I think deserve help. The dudes that could obviously work but panhandle instead get nothing from me.
I normally give at least loose change to beggars, but I had one use a line on me that I just couldn't refuse. I was vacationing in San Francisco and one of of the thousands there asked, "Would you like to donate to the United Negro Cheeseburger Fund?"
I had someone give me the hard-luck "out-of-gas" story once. They were not amused when, instead of giving them money, I reached into the back of my truck and gave them a gallon of gas instead. Made my day, though.
I was at a truck stop and a guy wanted money for something to eat. I told him to meet me inside and I would buy him whatever he wanted to eat. When I got inside the truckstop I saw him putting a bottle of mouthwash(10%alcohol) in his jacket. I told him if he was stealing I wasn't buying him anything. The manager saw this happening and ran him out of the truckstop. I guess he was a regular. Maybe not very funny but I think I kinda feel for people that are that far gone.
