I just encountered something I really hate.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Here's the back story. There was an accident where I live. It occurred in Callaway Maryland on US RT. 5

Basically some twat drove like a bat out of hell, was bumping into people, pushing them off of the road, passing on the shoulder, passing over the double yellow line, shouting at everyone and carrying on cranky in general.

When he got to here, he hit one woman in a minivan, bounced off of her and hit another car heading the other way...at about 100 MPH plus whatever speed the other car was driving.

The wreckage no longer resembled a car after the impact.

The two women in that car died quickly. The driver first as she was ripped into three pieces, the passenger within 5 minutes.

This is actually not what bothered me. This is not the part that I hate.

Well I do, after all the other driver (who suffered minor, non-life-threatening injuries) had no business being a twat like that, but there is something that bothers me even more than that.

It happened four days ago. The incident that I'm kvetching about happened just last night. As we're (wife and I) are driving home, we stop at a local convenience store to pick up some ice.

While there we are approached by a woman who is panhandling for money and is using the "I'm collecting for the two victims of the crash" line.

Could she have been really collecting for those people? Perhaps, but I doubt it.

1. She claimed that she was collecting for the accident that happened on Chancellor's Run Road which is here, is not connected directly to Rt. 5 and is nearly 4 miles away. I checked, there was no fatal accident on Chancellor's Run

2. No one collects for a fund at 11pm unless it is an event.

3. She was staggering around and even in the bright BRIGHT lights of the gas station, her pupils were so wide I couldn't tell what color her eyes really were. I suspect drug use.

4. Upon being denied money, she asked to get a ride. As a correlation to #3 above, we refused her the ride by saying "Sorry, we're going the opposite direction". She mumbled and wandered off. At no point did she say WHERE she was going in the first place for us to know where the opposite direction was.

So that's my gripe. That's my beef. That someone would take a tragic occurrence, lie about it badly just so you can get another hit of whatever mind blaster you're currently tweaked out on.

[blas87]

I just hate panhandlers in general.

I can't think of many reasons I'm excited to move back home with my parents, but one for sure is that you can enter and exit the highway without some idiot and their cardboard sign standing there practically blocking the intersection.

I've lived in this city for 5 years and the panhandlers are getting out of control. They are on nearly every highway entrance/exit, they are over the by the large mall and other shopping areas, and they are almost always blocking some type of intersection. They are even over by the residential areas, if there's main roads by there. I'm just glad my doors automatically lock when my car is in gear. I don't trust a single one of them. Sometimes I even worry if I have my window down while smoking and driving, I'm going to get hassled. Knock wood, thank GOD no one has been robbed or assaulted or had one of them try anything yet, but it's a matter of time.

[Andara Bledin]

Well, we could certainly do something about them (the ones that do it to eat, not the ones who make a disturbingly good living off of it), but that would require socialist-type programs, and we all know how evil socialism is.

As for the OP, yeah, it's shitty that someone is trying to get something by preying on people's reactions to a local tragedy. I'd much rather deal with one-off druggies as opposed to the slick websites that set up and fleece the public out of millions on the heels of every major tragedy that happens, these days. I also want to bitchslap everybody who gives money to such scammers because it's easier to give it away and feel good than to do any sort of due diligence to know where the money is going. If they couldn't make a profit, they wouldn't keep doing it.

^-.-^

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

I hate the ones who walk up and down between the traffic at busy red lights.

[LadyBarbossa]

It's common to see them at the intersection by my workplace at the five-six o clock hour. Some of them will even walk up to vehicles while the light is red and knock on the window. Maybe I'm paranoid, but that freaks me out and makes me feel incredibly unsafe.

[jackfaire]

What bothers me about panhandlers is simple. I make enough money to be comfortable. I can keep clothes on my back, food in my belly, after a few months of saving I can buy a new computer or whatever else it is I need.

I donate money to shelters and occasionally to panhandlers. Simple rule though your shoes better not be nicer than mine.

If your shoes are more expensive, comfortable, newer, and in better condition than mine then I am not as sympathetic.

I buy shoes that are usually generics for 20 to 30 bucks I can't afford 80 dollar shoes.

So it's hard for me to want to hand my hard earned money over to someone wearing 80 dollar shoes that look damn near new.

Much like it bugs me when the person driving a brand new Lexus gets more government assistance than me.

I am all for helping people in need just be nice if they were in need.

[Andara Bledin]

I donate money to shelters and occasionally to panhandlers. Simple rule though your shoes better not be nicer than mine.

Usually a good metric. The professional panhandlers will often be in some very comfortable shoes. Although with some work shoes, it's hard to tell they're actually that nice.

I don't give money to panhandlers. Food/drinks only. The ones truly in need (or really good at acting) will be overjoyed for a juice pouch on a hot day.

I buy shoes that are usually generics for 20 to 30 bucks I can't afford 80 dollar shoes.

Save up for the $80 shoes. By the time those $80 shoes wear out, you'd have spent at least half again as much on the cheaper ones.

It's all summed up rather handily by Terry Pratchett via Sam Vimes.

^-.-^

[Ginger Tea]

Save up for the $80 shoes. By the time those $80 shoes wear out, you'd have spent at least half again as much on the cheaper ones.
^-.-^

That can be said for virtually anything these days, I don't see the need for £80 sennahausen (sp) headphones with or without iPhone headset, yet my £10ish headphones are on the way out and I've only had them a few months.
All these £10ish headphones I've had over the last few years would have got me an overpriced name, just would the wiring last as it's always (save one pair) the right speaker that cuts out.

[Rageaholic]

I hate encountering panhandlers period. The one time I relented and gave this man 50 cents, some other guy came and asked for 4 dollars. I ended up just running away feeling like an idiot.

The thing that sucks is I do feel guilty turning down people who probably need the money. I mean, I have pretty liberal beliefs about helping the poor and all that, but it's not like I'm exactly rich either. I've been raised to not give money to strangers, but also to not ignore the poor. I end up feeling like such an asshole when I end up ignoring them and I hate that feeling.

[insertNameHere]

If I am leaving a restaurant and someone is begging they are hungry, I am willing to offer my left overs. I will under no circumstance offer money, especially when I'm sorry I have been making the lowest amount legally afforded to me.

I have a fraternity brother who won't give money away he makes them earn it, he tells them "I am buying amusement, I am not giving you anything so tell me a story or dance anything that would consider you worthy of me parting with my money", someone told him he was a dick but I agree, might as well make them work for it.

[Ginger Tea]

Sometimes in town I buy the big issue a weekly magazine sold via homeless/temporary housing people, but you have to be registered and off drugs (iir) rarely if ever do I hand out money any other way.

Although I do love it when people say "can you lend me..." be it 20p for the bus or whatever, you and I both know it will never be repaid, so why say lend.

edit:
years ago house mate 'borrowed' £3.50 almost every week, I stopped after a while, sooner or later it would be up to £35 he 'owed' me, but I doubt at the time I would ever see it again.
Other guy (mr can't shut the door having a piss) got his begging hand filled with 5p coins, not like I was spending them, your that desperate for frosty jack, you hand over a sock full of shrapnell to pay for it

[jackfaire]

Save up for the $80 shoes. By the time those $80 shoes wear out, you'd have spent at least half again as much on the cheaper ones.

This year I have my mom down in her costs and am putting my foot down about how much financial help she gets from me so I will have much more money to spend on things like clothes and stuff so probably will buy nicer shoes.

As far as the giving money to panhandlers it's never really more than change and depends a great deal on what my mood is. And if my daughter is around.

My daughter has this affect on me like I feel more generous at those moments.

[Rapscallion]

Giving money to others - what are you really giving?

You get money by giving part of the time of your life to others in exchange. They control your life for a while in exchange for a means of exchange.

If you're giving to beggers, you're effectively giving part of your life away. I take the view that this had better be for a good reason. Because someone genuinely needs it on a temporary basis? I don't really have a problem with that. Because it makes you feel better? That's how the fair trade movement works. Because a person's never going to improve their lot and actually work for a living? I start to get a touch leery there...

Rapscallion

[jackfaire]

Because a person's never going to improve their lot and actually work for a living? I start to get a touch leery there...

Rapscallion

See and that right there is why sometimes I wonder about donating to shelters. My ex-wife is a cartoon. By that I mean she is one of those people whom you imagine wakes up each day and says, "I know how we are gonna get rich today"

She has spent more time on unrealistic ideas and pie in the sky dreams than actually working a job and even going back to school for her education.

Her plan "Collect disability for being disabled (unless pathologically lazy is a disability she isn't) and for my son having issues, then take the money buy 60 acres in a small town where they have a general store and that's it then build a large house for next to nothing and without having to do any of the work"

This is the latest of her crazy plans all of which seem to become abandoned if anyone expects her to work.

That being said she has been in shelters for years and not just bouncing around to different ones but often the same one. A shelter that's whole reason for existence is to help people get back on their feet into the job market and into a home.

Question how long do you keep supporting someone who aggressively fails to meet those goals? There are other people willing to actually improve that want to use your place as a short term solution and not a long term living plan right?

[blas87]

I am not even thinking about Obama and socialism when I see panhandlers. I am hoping they stay the hell away from my car and don't bother me, I thank you.