OPSEC, Give them a sandwich and they'll ask for ...?

[Peanut]

The last few months, both in the little town and the big town, I've seen help wanted signs everywhere. Tell them to get a job, by noon they will have the money to buy their own lunch!

The last time I stopped at the big box store the only line I saw outside was people looking for day laborers, not day laborers.

Times have changed... along with how I will deal with panhandlers.

 

[Weedygarden]

The "homeless" are real professionals when it comes to panhandling, or hitting up the churches for money and goods (sleeping bags, tents, etc.).....many of them make a VERY good living at it. In Denver, for example, there are churches they can go to and get everything from bus tokens to King Sooper gift certificates (at $25 a pop!), and a number of the Catholic Churches will actually just hand them $20-$50 and send them on their way. I lived in Denver (Aurora, actually) for a number of years, and many of the so-called "homeless" were no more homeless than I was...some had townhouses in Cherry Creek for crying out loud!! Panhandling/hitting the churches, etc., is a very good way of life for many....and a lot easier/faster than "working" for a living!!

There are always people who are looking to have someone else take care of them, one way or another. I have a brother who thinks if our parents had not died when we were children, that we would never have had to work and would have each been given brand new cars as young adults. He never has any money, because, when he gets paid, his money is going to one of his habits or another. It was alcohol for many years, and now it is gambling. By the time he gets paid, he is always broke. He would love to retire, but he has never saved a dime, and certainly wouldn't have owned any property because that would mean work (maintenance).

 

[joel]

For years I have had random people walk up to me at gas station & tell me the are from town X, 30 miles away & forgot their cash.
Need money to get home & will sent me money when they get home.
I tell them no.
I never leave town without a full tank of gas & cash, a credit card & water,food & extra clothes.
It been that way for 40 years, if I can do it, so can they!

 

[Amish Heart]

The panhandlers I see every day are drug addicts.

 

[Weedygarden]

The panhandlers I see every day are drug addicts.

That is what I think when I see panhandlers, they are druggies. There is a man who has a sign that says, "Why lie? I want a beer."

There is some major street construction going on and it has changed my normal driving route. There is a woman who often stands out on one corner waving at everyone who goes by. Once in a while, I wave back. I know she wants people to stop and contribute to her drug habit.

 

[Sentry18]

My church used to make up care packages for mid-summer when the vagrants would migrate through the area. They were gallon zip lock bags full of things like granola bars, packaged beef sticks, hard candy, a bottle of water, wet wipes, band-aids, and lots of other sample sizes items. We would all keep a few in our cars and when we saw these people with their signs we would offer them a package instead of cash. We stopped doing it because most of them would decline, they just wanted money. That's all I needed to know about their intent.

 

[Flight]

From time to time at truck stops, I get the same bs, "Hi my name is (insert fake name here) I'm from (middle of nowhere) and my car ran out of gas, or needs a part, my family is in the car and we need money to get home, can you help?

Well I tell them I'm from Canada and all I have is monopoly money. They say they can't use it and leave.

What the truck, apparently Canadian monopoly money is no good here 8n the USA. Who knew?

 

[The Lazy L]

most people don't make eye contact these days, neither do they reply when you speak to them but hurry on by.
there is too much crime in cities for me to ever want to go there, most of it gang related/drugs and drink.
I went to London, oh over 40 years ago this was, for a family wedding, on the sunday morning I went out to buy a newspaper and when I said "good morning" to someone(as we do here) they jumped out of their skin and looked at me as if I was from outer space.!!!

Daughter #1 and I was walking in downtown Chicago. Daughter told me to stop looking at people in the eye, I was being aggressive!

 

[Peanut]

Around here panhandlers started showing up at rural churches as church lets out. They panhandle the whole church. It's usually a couple, a small child is a plus. "They need gas money to get to a job in Florida or Texas" or "her mamma has cancer and they need to get to South Carolina".

This started around here a couple years ago... They hit the close of Sunday night services which consists of a lot of the elderly/older folks. Younger church goers show up for Sunday morning but not so much Sunday night.

 

[Weedygarden]

Around here panhandlers started showing up at rural churches as church lets out. They panhandle the whole church. It's usually a couple, a small child is a plus. "They need gas money to get to a job in Florida or Texas" or "her mamma has cancer and they need to get to South Carolina".

This started around here a couple years ago... They hit the close of Sunday night services which consists of a lot of the elderly/older folks. Younger church goers show up for Sunday morning but not so much Sunday night.

I think that older people can be really naive and taken for a ride. I think it is important to help them understand what is really going on. Also, a couple people could take charge of this situation and politely and kindly tell the panhandlers to leave.

 

[Peanut]

I had forgotten about this but got a reminder today. On young panhandling couple hit 3 churches 3 sunday nights in a row. They didn't realize that everybody knows everybody out in the country. Eventually the church ladies, talking on the phone as they are known to do, connected the dots. Before the day was over every church within 30 miles had been notified. I also heard some young 20 something jobless guys spotted the car the couple were using. No one ever saw that car again.

Once the word spread this kind of panhandling stopped by the end of that year.

Edited to add... Goes to prove nothing angers a redneck meth addict more than someone else stealing from their grandparents.

 

[Terri9630]

Goes to prove nothing angers a redneck meth addict more than someone else stealing from their grandparents.

As a kid I was at a friends house in San Antonio. A gang fight started in the street and my friend grabbed my hand and led me to her grandmothers house. When I asked why we went there instead of to her house where her dad and brothers were she said we might get hurt if the fighters busted into her house but the gangs won't mess with the old people. It was a "rule". The elderly and their property was ALWAYS off limits or your own people would beat you.

 

[Weedygarden]

As a kid I was at a friends house in San Antonio. A gang fight started in the street and my friend grabbed my hand and led me to her grandmothers house. When I asked why we went there instead of to her house where her dad and brothers were she said we might get hurt if the fighters busted into her house but the gangs won't mess with the old people. It was a "rule". The elderly and their property was ALWAYS off limits or your own people would beat you.

I think that may not always be true these days. I think many people see older people as an easy mark and more likely to have something.

 

[Supervisor42]

As a kid I was at a friends house in San Antonio. A gang fight started in the street and my friend grabbed my hand and led me to her grandmothers house. When I asked why we went there instead of to her house where her dad and brothers were she said we might get hurt if the fighters busted into her house but the gangs won't mess with the old people. It was a "rule". The elderly and their property was ALWAYS off limits or your own people would beat you.

I think that may not always be true these days. I think many people see older people as an easy mark and more likely to have something.

Shoot some of them.
Pretty soon "busting" into any house will be 'off-limits'. Works for us.
If they want to 'throw down' in the streets of "da-hood" that's just fine, have at it.
Bring it into our house, and the morgue awaits you.

 

[Terri9630]

I think that may not always be true these days. I think many people see older people as an easy mark and more likely to have something.

I know its not true anymore. Just look at the news.