Would you give her money?

Scenario;

You just arrived to a local grocery store parking lot and as you lock your car, a car pulls over and a female calls you out. She is asking for money to drive back home (~300 miles) as her boyfriend cut all her cards and now in jail. She claims to be hungry and will call her mother to verify the story to you. She says that once she gets back, she will send you money.
Her car is about 10 years old. it is clean inside and out with child safety chair in the back and no kids "splatter" observed. You can smell tobacco and see smokes pack in the front.
Female is ~30 years old, clean with freshly done nails. She is covering her bottom half with a towel and displays 200-300$ phone.

Would you give her money? If so how much?

Sounds like a con if she had a phone why didn't she call her parents for help.
Or if your not sure, you offer her fifty bucks for the phone which she can buy back for fifty bucks when she gets home and sends the cash. and why was she wearing a towel something smells wrong.

No way in hell.

Nope. She may make it in trade though.

Buy her a sandwich.

Police sting. I've never seen this woman before officer, and no I didn't offer her money

I see the "lost my bus fare" version of this con often in the city when waiting for the bus home from work...

So nope I don't even reply, they can get their drug money from someone else.

When bums ask for money, you offer to buy them a sandwich or something like that.

Then duck as they get mad because that means they don't get money for liquor.

Around here they would take the sandwich so they can sell it for some drug money...

Instead we donate food and clothing directly to the local organized homeless "Tent City" which moves around from church to church and makes sure the donations are used for food and shelter not to support dealers.

Capitalism at work. Panzer would be proud

300 miles to get back home? WTH is she doing all the way out here then?

Is this a "what if" scenario or is this a new scam? I've had the occasional teen ask for £1 or so because he is short on his bus fare home... if the teen looks decent, I might give the money, if not, then I say I don't have cash on me, which is true most of the time anyway.

I was once Php300 (around £4.25) short on cash on my way home one time due to being charged for heavy luggage. I told the airport lady my predicament and she went up and down the line asking for change from her co-workers so that they can cover the cost of my fees. Because of this good Samaritan gesture, I try to see if I can pay it forward as much as I can.

The "trying to get back home" angle is the oldest trick in the book. It's designed to generate more sympathy by creating a scenario you can empathize with better, to give you the impression that this is just a lost person, not a career panhandler, and to give you these sense that your money will be used for something good and truly helpful and will solve person's problems decisively and permanently (rather than just feeding/enabling a perpetual situation).

There was a girl who used to panhandle outside my work holding a sign saying "Trying to raise money for a bus ticket to get back home to Subury". The cost of that bus ticket is about $75. She panhandled with that sign for more than a year. She was a cute little thing and got plenty of attention from passers by - people giving her money, food etc. She panhandled right next to where I'd go out to smoke so I observed lots of people engaging with her, and I have to believe that numerous people offered to just give her a bus ticket. Yet there she stayed.

Hell no. Anyone who flat out tells you a story like that is full of crap. She's just looking for a gullible white person to try and beg some money off of.

Nothing...would be fun to ask for a peek under the towel.

99.9% chance of a con, with a big guy back up nearby.

How much time do I have on my hands?

Five bucks and she sings "I'm a little tea pot" with the hand and arm motions, and then sings the national anthem, acting out the song in an interpretive sort of dance.

Nothing is so entertaining as a panhandler performing for some cash.

I had this happen at a local gas station a couple months ago, young couple 'almost out of gas, needing to get home in the next town but not enough in the tank to get there' was the story and could I please help them out with cash, I offered to put gas on my card in their tank and they walked away looking for someone with cash.. next person who pulled in told them the same and they got in their car and sped off.

Not a chance in hell, i would be walking away before she even finished her story.

We used to (13 years old) walk around the shops after school and hit up adults for money for our bus fare home until we had enough for cigarettes and a drink, sometimes we would get enough for a feed as well.

Interesting intro that mirrors my experience

I was picking up my kid at LAX. Had time to kill so I drove a few miles down the boulevard to fill up the car. Very busy intersection (Century Blvd) with many international travelers. A van pulls up with little kids in back and lady asked for money to make it back home. She asked nicely but never got out of the car and proceeded to every customer at a pump asking the same thing. One minute later a man walks up and asks for the same thing.

It's a business.

no money, i don't even give firemen that stand out in the street with the rubber boot in their hands any money why should i give her some.

I wouldn't giver her money, just doesn't seem right under the circumstances.

As for giving anyone money, these days I rarely carry cash so unless they take debit transactions the answer is no to anyone. And if they could take debit cards then the answer is HELL NO! I'll bet that panhandlers will soon take advantage of the digital age though....

Panhandlers with smart phones with NFC to accept money from passersby...

If I was going to do it, I'd come up with a better story.
"I'm trying to collect $5 billion in order to create a cold fusion drive to let me return to my home planet. I'll leave the plans to the people of Earth once I have my ship complete."




The Jedi Master

You've got a hell of a lot better chance getting a donation from me with that story than the lady's. Cold fusion drives are an investment.

That's the hook! A normal trip home gives you nothing but a warm feeling. Help me build my star drive and when I'm done the whole planet gets cheap energy!




The Jedi Master

"And that's when the energy wars began..."

I see through your ruse, you evil alien scum!

Is this question part of the Voight-Kampff test designed to elicit an emotional response from me?

You know what's weird? You're mostly right but I once had dinner at a Steak N Shake in Columbia, MO with a guy who accepted exactly that offer. So you never know.

Yes, there are a few shining examples that like but they're in the minority.

I don't know if they're in the minority, they're just generally not the ones panhandling.

The decent ones are the ones in the shelters already, looking for a job doing ANYTHING, desperate to go back to mere poverty which is a step up from the hole they're currently in.

Once had a guy hand out those "deaf, please help" cards at a local fast-food restaurant my wife and I were at. She's one of the rare people who know ASL despite not being deaf and was able to confirm in 5 seconds that the guy was genuinely deaf (true deaf people sign at light speed) and gave him a couple of bucks.



The Jedi Master

I'm an arsehole, so no.

I may, however, offer a bonus if the request is truly outstanding - run-of-the-mill ones like trying to get home are so old. Jedi Master was on the right track earlier. Make my day interesting and you might get some cash, in which case it's not so much begging as entertainment...

That's not being an arsehole, that's refusing to be swindled. People are sick when it comes getting money like this.

The only thing I'll offer is a manual labor job, and I've never been taken up on it yet.

Jedi's request is the only exception since it's a legitimate enterprise.

I was going to post up a long story about when this happened to me, but the gist of it was that I gave her a ride home AND gave her money. The story sounded believable at the time.

The good news is that once you make that mistake once, you're unlikely to ever make it again!

Just take that to Kickstarter...

There's a chance Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos may even contribute if they think they can make a fortune with a cold fusion drive.

If rock simulator can gain more than 5 cents Jedi is going to make thousands.

Good discussion. My actions; I said that I didn't believe her and listed off some "oddities" in her appearance and story and then walked off. While walking away I noticed she had "handicapped" tag on her mirror (ref other topic in Community Hall). She kept driving around and harassing people in the parking lot. After buying groceries, she was still driving around the lot and calling people to her.

Sounds more like that woman had some serious psychological issues. She was not just a typical scammer.

Hmmm...constantly seeking attention despite having what she needed already? Around 30?

Was it Lady Gaga?



The Jedi Master

I'd give her five bucks for the towel covering her bottom. What can I say, I'm a pig. Oink! Oink!

This kind of thing seems to be becoming more prevalent these days.Maybe 5-10 years ago there were no beggars in my town at all,seen plenty in the city's (Glasgow/Edinburgh) back then though,but now every hundred yards there is someone sitting on the ground with a cap in front of them.

Just a few weeks back while sitting in MacDonald's I watched while some skinny looking girl,looked about mid 30's,hassled passers by for what was obviously money,it peeved me that it was close to a cash-point machine and it was mainly old folks she was asking.When I left I asked one old guy who had refused her,what it was she was asking for and he said it was for £5 for her bus fare home,but I have since witnessed her doing this again,and heard from others that she is a regular at this.

This really should be outlawed IMO as it looks terrible and to put the older generation in that position is pretty low I think.

Mick.