Maybe the officer can buy him some new drapes for his apartment.
A Con Game, or Confidence Game, is where a person attempts to steal from another person through deception. The thief shows the victim that he, the thief, has confidence in him, the victim. The thief than acts as if the victim should then reciprocate and have confidence in the thief. The strategy used to steal from the victim is known as The Con or The Sting or The Kansas City Shuffle.
I don’t like the ones that seem to come out every winter, all dressed in red, laughing, calling everybody a ho and asking for money. Some even have the nerve to ring bells at people!
I give to the Church, or, the Salvation Army...THAT’s IT. Otherwise - in today’s world - I assume it’s a scam.
Besides, I already “give” to the “poor” via proxy...the obama administration’s ideology of redistribution.
Sherlock Holmes, Man with the Twisted Lip.
Guy wasn’t crazy though, just successful.
1. San Francisco 9th street off ramp from the Central freeway. A fellow would stand by the traffic light with a cardboard sign “Hungry will work for food. Please help. Bless you.” etc. The message varied but basically the same. One day I saw him getting ready for work. He had the trunk of a Pinto open and was changing into “work” clothes ie: Goodwill instant beggar outfit,ruffling his hair and applying some sort of lotion( Coppertone?) to give him that ruddy outdoor look. I did see him make money from drivers.
2. Anecdotal from ex co-worker, I will call him “Lars”, when he was in the Merchant Marine prior to working with the IT firm I was working at. Lars was on shore leave in San Pedro and walking around with his shipmate when they were aggressively panhandled for money by a street person ostensibly for food.
Lars and his shipmate refused and got the “bum” to admit he just wanted money to drink. They then had the bum wait as they went to a liquor store and bought 4 gallons of the cheapest strongest wine they could find. The “homeless guy” was ecstatic and walked off to a park with his new treasure.
Later that day they were stopped by San Pedro PD and questioned about buying wine for a “homeless” guy. The cop went ballistic and threatened Lars and his shipmate with arrest for the duration of their shore leave if they ever did that again.
It turns out the beggar had several friends show up to help him enjoy his new bounty. End result a small crowd of very intoxicated “homeless” had mini riot in the park fighting and arguing. The local PD had to use several dozen officers to break it up using night sticks, mace and cuffs plus haul them all off for booking.
So last weekend, with a personal vow not to discuss the results of the recent election during a family reunion, I was driving several relatives who had supported the expansion of the welfare state to a regional shopping mall, when I hear one of my more liberal democrat sisters scream, “Stop....roll down your window!”
With amazement, I saw she was pointing to a group of four people standing at the intersection (listening to their I-pods of course) who had their hands out waiting for foolish drivers to hand over their hard-earned money.
I had not said anything political all weekend until that moment, when I blurted out, “You have to be kidding...your guy won vowing to give these scammers more and more free crap, so why would you even think about giving them money?”
I never got a reply and needless to say, the next words she spoke to me was at the end of the weekend when she said “goodbye” at my departure.
I’m afraid there are just too many like my relative who really just don’t have a clue.
BTW - Just in case there was any doubt, I had refused to lower my window!