Posted on 12/05/2012 8:21:47 AM PST by marthemaria
he barefoot man helped by a kind cop in New York City is not actually homeless.
Last week, we told you about the heartwarming story of an NYPD officer giving a homeless and barefoot man a pair of winter boots.
The story seemed almost too good to be true. And, according to one report, that is in fact the case.
The New York Daily News reported on Monday that the barefoot man in question, Jeffrey Hillman, is not actually homeless. Instead, he has an apartment in the Bronx thanks to disability benefits and vouchers.
The article also notes that Jeffrey Hillman has repeatedly turned down assistance from local agencies.
"Officer [Lawrence] DePrimo's kindness and generosity complemented an array of housing and support services provided by the city over the past several years," said Barbara Brancaccio, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeless Services.
Jeffrey Hillman reportedly resided in transitional housing from 2009 to late 2011 before getting his current home through the Department of Veteran Affairs. According to the New York Times, Jeffrey Hillman was a food service specialist in the Army for five years.
The Times also reported last week that the barefoot man who is not homeless was back on the streets a few days later. Once again, Hillman was barefoot, telling reporters that he had hidden the shoes so they would not be stolen.
However, Jeffrey Hillman made sure to thank the NYPD Officer DiPrimo for the random act of kindness.
"I appreciate what the officer did, don't get me wrong," he said. "I wish there were more people like him in the world."
"I want to thank everyone that got onto this thing," Hillman continued. "I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. It meant a lot to me.
(Excerpt) Read more at idigitaltimes.com ...
Maybe if I run around NYC barefoot I can a pair of C&J Islay boots from Barney’s.
maybe they can buy that cowboy some clothes.
This is why I don’t give to beggars and panhandlers. You never know if you are being scanned.
If I want to help the poor, I’ll give to a reputable charity. Hopefully, in this way someone who really needs assistance will be more likely to get it.
Probably a professional panhandler.
Walking in the morning towards the platform in a subway in Madrid, Spain, I used to drop a coin in the cup of a middle aged gypsy woman with several barefoot and half-naked children. I was in high school then, but I still remember feeling awful for her. Then, one day, she was in a loud argument with another gypsy and that is how I found out that she was “renting” the children. Apparently she was late paying and the other woman was “repossessing” the children!! I never gave her another penny. She was still there when I graduated, so she must have been making a living!
Another of the growing army of “disabled” on Social Security disability. We all hear talk of senior citizen retirees when we discuss SS reform. But the biggest problem is lazy guys like this. Grifters.
I’m surprised the cop was that naive, but I guess it’s because he’s a rookie. He’s got a good heart but he was scammed plain and simple. I grew up, still live in NYC (unfortunately) these bums pull these kind of scams all the time, especially on tourists which no doubt is what he was aiming for.
Did it not seem strange to this cop why this dude was sitting in front of a shoe store with his bare feet sticking way out into the sidewalk? And in Times square? Come onnn. And now he’s doing it again. He sees it works, so he will do it again and again and again and sell the shoes to some tourist for $10 bucks which is what he probably did 10 minutes after the cop bought him those shoes.
That whole area in Times square is just one huge cesspool of scammers and thieves. I walked through there last year and did a test, I had an old wallet I was going to throw out, but instead I put it in my back pocket and let it stick out bit and walked from 7th ave and 42nd st heading north. Before I even got two blocks I thought I felt something, so I reached around and guess what? The wallet was gone! *What* a surprise!
I had a liberal woman in my car one day. She was scrambling in her purse for money to give to one of those bums on the street corner with the sign.
I told her, “hey, don’t do that, you’ll teach him to associate people with food”.
A fed bear is a dead bear.
I thought she would pop a critical vessel. lol
Oh well, i hear apartments in NYC are inexpensive, and easy to find.
Praise Jesus! I can WALK!!
From “Trading Places” a classic very funny movie, which could NOT be made today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKtjBqJ4NxA
However,what that cop did was,in fact,a very decent thing even though it may have been inadvisable...even if the guy was,in fact,homeless.
I worked for 20 years in the ER of a major hospital of a large,Northeastern city.In winter alcoholics/addicts/schizophrenics used to come in all the time wanting "medical clearance" to go to a detox/psych facility.They'd almost invariably sign themselves out of the facility at the first hint of better weather and,voila!,we'd see them at the next cold snap...."I wanna go to detox".
Mentally ill or a scammer? No, he just happens to wonder around Times Square in December without shoes.
Part of the 47%?
Something really stunk here from the beginning.
I could smell the stench all the way here to Panama.
What a wonderful officer. The gods bless him.
Just another con man working the system. Any sympathy from his actual plight is now gone.
Whole group of “exit ramp” panhandlers around here, some with military clothing (and one with a para helmet). This one had a sign “vietnam vet”. He was at most 35 years old.
A while back in GA they rounded up a Dickens like gang of panhandlers-— tracking the “homeless” from their spot at the end of the day to a mall parking lot where they met a Mercedes, and leader was caught taking his percentage of each daily. Real nice.
Don’t give cash to anyone on the street, sign or not. More often than not it is a scam.
Now that’s funny!
Shocked, I say - SHOCKED!
I lived in NYC for a couple of years. The number of scammers is mind-numbing. My favorite is the “belt scam.” It goes like this...
You come out of the subway station. A confused man in a suit comes up to you and asks what street he is on. He explains that he got off at the wrong subway stop and that he has an interview in 20 minutes uptown. UNFORTUNATELY, he has left his wallet at home and now doesn’t have the requisite fare to get uptown for the job interview. He’s out of work and desperately needs the job.
“Tell you what - I’ll sell you my belt for $2! It’s really nice, worth way more than $2. That will get me subway fare!”
At this point, most suckers just feel sorry for the desperate guy and give him the $2. He disappears down the subway stairs and you gone on your way thinking you may have helped someone get a job.
If you agree to buy the belt, he’ll start to take it off, but then balk, claiming he’ll look ridiculous in the interview without a belt. He then says he’s just going to try running, but thanks anyway. (He’s hoping that you’ll have the money out already and will just hand it to him.) He’ll then run off.
BUT...
Come back two hours later. The same guy will be there scamming different people for $2 dollars. Again and again. The total dialogue only takes about 2 minutes, so - if he’s good - he can do this 30 times an hour. Most of the time, he’s successful because people want to help the nicely dressed, out-of-work businessman who is just desperate to get to his job interview.
I’m now officially jaded to ALL types of beggars. NYC taught me that.
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