Ungrateful

I wrote this on the subject long ago here, found it and am reposting it.
I assume the average age on this site is a lot less here than my almost 70. I was raised in centeral wisconsin in the 40s and 50s. No big citys in that area so possibly I could have got a false impression. I dont remember ever seeing a panhandler in those days. There may have been a incident or two of a bum passing through knocking on your door offering to chop wood or work for a meal. I had no experiance even seeing a panhandeler untill I came west in the 60s. When I lived in california I reconised some of the same panhandlers for a generation! I mean they worked the same area for over 10 years and better!
I have went both ways on the deal. At times I belittled and refused them, and at other times I have taken them in resturants and ate with them. I have taken them to a cheap motel and paid their rooms for a few days in advance, but overall, I have many more times refused them
any money. I guess I went by my sences of beliveability and snap judgement. I have blew up at a few.
I have had 12 year old kids ask me for money in stores that were well dressed like they expected it to buy a toy or snacks! I belive that made me even madder than older poorer bums that seemed to really need help.
Once I was entering a coffee shop for a chat with friends. A older black woman asked me for gas money so she could go pick up her chillen at school. I gave her a few bucks and silently observed she seemed old to have school age kids. My buddy saw me give her money as he waited inside for me. He asked about it than roared with laughter saying, "Ya dang fool, there aint no school open today, this is memorial day!
Once I was starting to leave my house and a lincoln mark pulled up in front. This older black guy got out, walked straight up to me and was crying. I come here to tell ya my wife died this morning! Well I am sorry to hear that, but I dont even know any black women, are ya looking for sombody else that knows her? No, she told me she had talked to you about a week ago and that yo wuz a nice christian man. ( I faintly rememberd a black woman walking by and trying to engage me in conversation about that time frame.) I had been set up! Then he asked me if he could come in my house and me pray for him! I yet hadnt put his game together, and being a christian, what do you do? I said okay, let him in and prayed with him. Then he proceeded to tell me how he had to take his kids to san diego to his sister for a week or so untill the funneral was over but didnt have gas money. He explained he was about 25 years older than his wife and they had young kids.
I said I would loan him $200 to make the trip. About 4 days later here he came again and told me he hadnt forgot the loan and was going to get some more money up to go to a pawn shop to get out his new browning 380 that his wife bought new last christmas and he never fired, and that when he bailed it out he was gonna sell it and pay me back.
Of course when he was to my house the first time he no doubt seen numerous gun magazines and books!
Larcaney took over. I had earlier once owned the same gun and knew the value. Tell ya what I will do. Heres another $100s. Go get that gun bailed out, bring it ta me, and we will square the deal.
I am still waiting for my browning .380!
 
My daughter is 24 now, but she still talks about the homeless guy we encountered at a Mrs. Winner's Chicken place when she was just about 5 years old. We had eaten in and I had noticed the guy sitting there in the corner with a cup of coffee and about 60 sugar packets. Everything about the guy screamed druggie.

Sure nuff, as we finished our meal and began to take our tray and trash to the container he stood up and approached me with a sad song about his car was broken down up off the interstate and he had no money for gas or food, and could I spare some extra cash?

As a Christian, and as one blessed by growing up in a home of loving, giving parents myself, I didn't want to toss this guy aside or be rude to him in front of my young daughter. Instead I wanted this to be a teaching moment for my daughter. I told him I'd buy his dinner, whatever he wanted, as much as he wanted to eat (they had a buffet there) just walk with me to the counter and let me pay for you. He then changed his story and said he really wanted to eat later and just wanted the money. I explained I didn't have any cash, but would be happy to buy him some food for his trip. He just shook his head and walked away.

As he did, my daughter said, " Guess he wasn't really hungry after all, was he Dad?".
 
I stopped giving cash to beggars.

I always offer to get them food, and I've never had one take me up on it.
 
About three years or so back I was in a local city (biggest thing we got around) which has turned into a big haven of drugs, bums, drunks and robberies. I was walking through a parking lot not more than a mile from the local PD when a guy walked up to me and started bumming for change. I told him no, and he was a mangy looking thing about in his 50's and he started to rear back like he was going to take a swing. I on the other hand leaned in on him and backed him up against a car and gave him a quick word or two and he was on his way. I've seen a couple of incidents like that go bad when I used to work overnights in Rutland, VT. I saw one homeless guy pull a steak knife on a guy and another bum whipped out a fat end of a fishing rod that had been cut at an angle and that nearly got jammed into the throat of a bus driver. The point being you never know these days when someone begging for change or help might not like being told no, which is what I tell the wife. We had a couple times where people broke down in front of the house, and she keeps an old wooden bat we found in the attic of the house by the door. We have a porch and that's where anyone who ever needs help stays, no farther. This day and age people one never knows anymore.

Makes me think of a story from back this summer. I was selling a truck I had bought as a project and it really was more for parts after I got looking into it. I had it for $500 and it didn't run. Some local guy called up and said he wanted it because he needed something to get back and forth to work. I told him that this truck needed work, but he said that was ok since he was a mechanic. No problem, the truck was his for the money. Turns out what I didn't know was that he had been at the house and tried to start the truck. I told him no matter what he doesn't step foot on my property unless I'm there. He called me two or three days in a row trying to meet up with him and I was working so our schedules were not clashing. He tells me on the third day he has a check, I replied no problem, but I hold onto the truck until it clears the bank. Turns out he borrowed the money from the local church. I then ask him how he is going to get the truck off of my property if he has no money. He then told me he bought a starter for it and was going to come up and install it. I told him under no circumstances is that happening in case he gets hurt. I then cut him a deal and tell him for $400 he can use the extra money to tow it away. Ok this kid says, call him the next day. Turns out the next day at noon his girlfriend calls the house and speaks to the wife, she can't find her man and wants to know if he's at my place, nope. I then call his house later after I get home and speak to his girlfriend, turns out he took the cash and went to the local bar and was drinking it all. I apologized to his girlfriend and told him to never have him call here or show up ever again. I was happy when that truck sold to someone else so that we didn't have to worry about this loser showing up at my door. Makes me wonder what ever happened to him and if the church let him waltz.
 
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"she jumped in her car, fired it up, and drove off....with the other guy's $20, of course. He had the most amazing look on his face!"

Hey, you guys are from Texas. You both should have been shooting at her car as she sped away! ;-)
 
Un unh flapjack, quoteing scripture got me in trouble yesterday on that other thread, but I think you right!
 
One cold winter night about 2 in the morning I was patroling through a Wal-Mart parking lot. I noticed pick-up with it's windows fogged up and noticed the exhaust. I stopped and found a young couple with a small child. They told me that they had a flat and did not have a spare and that they could not get it fixed until daylight hours when Wal-Mart auto dept. opened. The back of the pickup was filled with everything they owned. They were moving from Oklahoma to Dallas where the young man thought he could get work. He told me they did not have enough money to get a motel being that he was needing to replace the tire and was afraid that he would also burn all their gas trying to stay warm. A motel 6 was right across the street so I went over there and told the night manager what was happening and asked if Motel 6 could comp a room for the young couple and child. I was told he could not do that due to policy so I paid for a room. I went back to Wal-Mart and assisted them in limping their truck to the motel parking lot. I remember the tears in the young couples eyes and telling me that someday they would repay me. I told them not to worry about it. The next night when I came to work dispatch advised that someone had left me something at the front desk. It was the womans personal small hand bible with a note. I still have it and the note put back in my memory box. About a year and a half later the same couple came into the PD and had the money for that hotel room. Dispatcher would not take the money because I had left instructions at front desk not to.
Whenever I gave someone a ride to a motel or hotel from the interstate during those late nights I would always tell them not to write a letter of appreciation to my department. First letter of appreciation I received for giving someone a lift to a motel I got called into the Chief's office and I left a few pound lighter. I remember him saying, "We are not a taxi service". I told him that there was not a taxi service available in this area. It did not stop me from assisting people stranded on a desolate highway late at night. I just never documented it on my daily log and always told them not to write any letters of appreciation. Heck of a way to run a business.
 
That reminds me of an incident many years ago. I stopped on the freeway to help a guy who ran out of gas. I drove to the nearest exit and pulled into a gas station. I asked to borrow a gas can and fill it with gas to help the stranded motorist. I said I'd bring it right back. The attendant said sarcastically, no way. He would not give me a can of gas. The ironic part is I was working, driving a marked police cruiser, in uniform. I guess he didn't trust cops.
 
One Saturday last spring I was on my way home from turkey hunting. I stopped at a rural conveniance store to get some fuel for my pickup and grab a snack and Mt. Dew. As I'm pumping gas, standing there in my turkey hunting camo, a guy pulls up in a newish Ford pickup, gets out and comes over and says he's left his wallet at home and could he borrow a few bucks to get gas so he could get back home. I give him $5 and as he goes in to pay for the gas I got the license plate off the truck and called my dispatch and ran the plates.

Interestingly enough, the truck comes back reported stolen earlier that day, so I told the dispatcher where I was and to send a deputy over. She made a radio call and the closest deputy just happened to be only 3 or 4 minutes away on a traffic stop.

The guy comes back out after paying for the gas and as he's working the pump I strike up a conversation just to kill time and hope to stall the guy. Just as he's finishing up with pumping the gas the marked sheriff's patrol unit drives up and the guy gets a paniced look on his face. Come to find out, he'd stolen the truck and he had felony warrants out for him.

I never did get my 5 bucks back.
 
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My son in law & I were hunting deer last month. Driving along a logging road we came across a old Toyota Dolphin with a old Indian camped there. He worked for the logging company as a weekend security man. He needed gas. We drove back to camp & took one & a half gallons back the next day. Son in law took a nice 3 pointer on the way out. Two weeks went by & I had written the gas off. But into camp he came with 3 dollars. He told us when he went into town to fill up the Dolpfin took 18.9 gallons for a 19 gallon tank.
 
oldflatfoot said:
Sure as hell, he was back at the shop in short order with a puzzeled look on his face, telling me the gas can was gone. In the distance I swear I saw Dick Burg driving down the road in his dammned old jeep, laughing his *** off! Screaming "I'm king I'm King, I'm King of the Kentucky Gas Cartel".
Click to expand...

Well if he left it on the road/right of way, its rightfully mine! :D

I can say in all these years, I've never found one abandoned on the highway with fuel still in it. I've always just figured the person had a prissy outlook and didn't want to mess up their car with a nasty old gas can.

But this spring I was yard sale scrounging with my wife. It was early, probably before they were supposed to open. But the old guy had a 20 gallon propane tank out by the sidewalk. I saw it was a modern type of the Blue Rhino. I needed an empty so I could have a full spare on hand (they always run out about half way through the steak or burgers). The guy said "oh, $5". So I paid up and went to carry it to the jeep. It was already full! :D :D So I won double! The only thing better than a spare tank is a full spare tank.
 
He must have thought you were part of the government handouts.
This is what we are cultivating in our society today.
His logic was........He was out of gas, you had gas, it's up to you to share your gas.
 
scammers

A couple of months ago our local media rode with the county LEO to do a
story on the beggers with the cardboard signs along exit ramps, supposably homeless and needing money. one of the guys they stopped at had 2 outstanding warrants $1600. cash and a cell phone on him.
(where does the phone company send the bill to a homeless person?)

vic3620
 
The phone bill comes to the phone and you pay it from a debit account or at a phone distributor. When I lived in Missoula the story was the sign people averaged around $100 for a 3 hour begging shift. I think the real opportunity would be in making their signs. A friend who was an LEO would stop at the ones with "will work for food" and give them a can of chili. "OK you have food now leave". None of them wanted the food or to leave.
 
Was waiting for my wife in wally world where they had the game machines. Little kid was playing and when the machine was done he turned around and asked if he could have some money. Why is it because I'm an old fart people think I have money to give away?.
Another story, was cutting the grass and a woman had a flat right in front of my house. OK being the nice guy I am I changed the tire (I am on old fart) I put the jack, lug wrench and tire in the trunk, close the lid and off she went. No thanks or nothing. Wasn't looking to get paid or anything like that. And that is the last time I'll change someone's flat. Frank
 
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