Shady fake AIDS/Hurricane Ike charity collecting at intersections

I saw that on 45 near the Fiesta last week or whenever the Hurricane passed through.

They looked some shady people alright.

I wanted to roll down my window and go off on them and say I only donate to the Red Cross.


I wanted to start a thread on this last week, but I forgot, and yeah, that pisses me off.

 

There are plenty of organizations you can donate to rather than help the "beggars" on intersections.

I rmember one guy asked for my sunglasses when I said I didn't have any change even though I saw a cellphone in the cup and his wife buying him cigarettes down the street

 

Federal Road at Market, they are all over like mosquitos. The one guy who tapped on my window, I gently rolled it down and with a high voice yelled, GET A ****ING JOB AND QUIT PANHANDLING. YOU'RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE!

I felt so Miami Vice.

 

I've seen them at the Montrose and Richmond intersection.

 

Same guy has been at Allen Parkway and Studemont for like 2 years now.

I think he parks his Expedition around the corner.

 

Same thing happening near the Galleria...

In fact - since I moved here 6 years ago - the EXACT same panhandler has been working the same intersection at the Galleria area... now he's using the Ike scam to garner sympathy...

Unfreakingbelieveable - 6 years of panhandling... he MUST be doing very well to continue to sit out in the sun day after day instead of finding traditional work

 

I've heard that a good pan-handler can make as much as $100/day. Tax free, of course....

That's like 26K/year take home pay. 36K if he works 7 days a week.

 

I saw two guys that drove away from a corner off 59S and Gessner once and the driver showed the passenger a bag that had a crack rock in it. They hit knuckles and looked excited. Once they saw me looking at them while at the stop light, they quickly put the bag down out of view and sped off. I looked at my wife with a WTF look.
I'll only donate to Red Cross.

 

Just to clear something up, there is a difference between the homeless people begging for money and the people who scam you on the side of the streets. Many homeless people suffer from severe mental handicaps, be it schizophrenia, severe bi-polar disorder, severe depression, etc. that none of us can even begin to imagine what it's like to have to deal with.

Think for a moment. If you were to suddenly be without any financial resources at all and were unable to work, how many of you would end up on the street? I'd assume not many. Most of us have a mother or father or brother or cousin or best friend or son or daughter or nephew and on and on who could take us in for some duration. Do we believe that all homeless people don't have those people? Of course many of them do, but, the major issues they suffer from prevents them from being able to utilize their network of family and friends or, they were so bad that their network had to give up on them.

It isn't as simple as saying they should get a real job instead of panhandling. If you own a small business, tell me, how likely are you hire a guy and keep him employed who can barely function for more than 10 minutes?

 

1960 & 45 ALWAYS has the same dang homeless people begging.

 

I remember at 249 and Cypresswood there was a homeless/hooker/something standing on the median at the intersection. She had to be around 22 or 23. Had her make up done, dressed nicely and asking for money. I thought that was kinda weird.

Right after Ike hit I went to Best Buy to charge up my cell phone as I didn't have power and this lady drives around the parking lot in a van with 2 kids in the back and flags me down. I am expecting to give her directions, but then she comes at me with a very well rehearsed story about how she is there from Galveston and "lost everything". I told her there was a church right down the street giving food and shelter, plus if she was really broke why would she be wasting gas driving around a parking lot. She got pissed and drove off.

Hate people who try to profit off of a tragedy.

 

Does it seem as if Houston as a LOT of panhandlers compared to other large metro cities?

 

Ever been to San Francisco? They will bleed you dry as you walk down the street.

 

I'm not sure how it works in TX but here in MN for stuff like that you can contact the Attorney General's office and they will looking into that.

Sadly I'm not surprised about stuff like this as every disaster there are a lot of scams. I find it particularly infuriating when a lot of us are trying to do something legitimate to help and we not only have to deal with the apathy of the public over Ike but also scammers.