Hopefully I'm not the only idiot who gets scammed because I was raised with Christian compassion.
Tell me your stories, I could use a good laugh.
Here’s a bum-scammer video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yVSyw7TnODk
I’ve let my guard down in the past and gave to a bum or two - no more....I’m going Galt on Bums:)
I try to avoid panhandlers but I use my intuition and hope it is right but if I do the right thing, it doesn’t matter, I can feel good about it.
OTOH, I mostly give to people I know. The guy who had a traumatic brain injury and just walks around town, he rarely asks for anything and when he does it is for milk or Dr. Pepper. He has also brought me chocolate and if I ask him to do something is always willing. He voted for Romney and almost cried when he lost.
There is a group home for mentally challenged adults near where I work and they often walk by so I offer them treats and like children they are very thankful and, I think, happy that I talk to them.
The miracle guy with AIDS who needs rides occaisionally.
Then there are just the regular people that have low paying jobs who are in tough circumstances. I am meeting a woman this morning to show her how I want my MIL’s storeroom cleaned. I got started on it yesterday and got overwhelmed and thought about how she was having tough times and called her. It is something she can do anytime of the day or night and still do her regular job and I get to help her and relieve myself of an onerous burden.
I suspect the recently well publicized incident where the police officer bought boots and socks for the bare footed homeless man might have involved at least some well thought out planning, if not some actual scamming. Was it good luck that the bare feet were so prominently visible ... right beside a shoe store?
Although I have not seen him recently, there was a man with a sign that varied in message, at Exit 59 on I 81. Curiously, he was sometimes at Exit 77 on I 81 about 90 miles north.
he was clean but always had 3 or 4 days whiskers.
could he make money? Perhaps $10 or $12 per hour, more than many jobs?
I think so.
John Stossell did a whole show on begging and he did it himself for a day to see how money he could make - very informative.
It’s not idiocy to do something you thought was good, that ends up being a scam.
Last time I felt so inclined to help someone it was a kid. I told him that I wasn’t going to give him money, but that if he were truly hungry I’d by him a meal at the nearby fast food store - BUT - he would have to admit to me what he was using. He denied, I started walking and he then said...yeah you’re right. he was on heroin and something else. I ordered him a meal (he switched the drink to a shake for a little extra money when i wasn’t paying attention, a fascinating thing to me, as i’d have bought it if he asked me).
I chatted with him for a few minutes. Completely hopeless, no way he’s ever going to get off of it, which is what I expected.
I believe my dialog with him was the only honest discussion he’d had that day.
No you're not, you helped someone you thought was in need and that's all you need to know.
A man approached my husband as he was leaving church one morning and asked for money because he was hungry. Hubby has a policy of not giving money but meeting said need so they went to the very nearby convenience store. Hubby looked in his billfold and all the cash he had on hand was $5 so he told the many to pick out whatever he wanted but it had to be no more than $5. The guy chose some food items including a bag of chips and when the checker added it up it wasn’t quite $5. Hubby was pocketing the change when the man asked “Can I have MY change?”. Hubby was hot and gave him a very stern warning to take the food and move along. A side note: the man was not malnourished in the least.
You gave her cash money with no expectation of how she'd use it in her life. You were NOT scammed, you just don't like what she said she'd use it for.
I find it interesting you and most others, claiming to be Christian, choose to see avarice and deceit where you could've recognized something else.
Please tell us that you’re a liberal. Or perhaps a rino.
I shutter to think that a conservative “Christian” would willingly be this foolish.
You’re not an idiot. I’ve had a similar situation happen with me when our daughter was young. We gave money to a woman and her daughter who said they were stranded and needed bus money home. We later saw them eating at a fast food place. Our daughter was crushed to learn she’d been lied to. I kind of expected it (sorry, not a real funny story).
It always hurts a little bit when someone takes advantage of us, but the truth is, it is on the liars head, not yours. You acted with a good conscience.
Someone mentioned helping the homeless through Goodwill and other organizations. We are involved with a Christian organization that ministers to the homeless on the streets and in the parks of west Phoenix. They do a great service and we have seen street people’s lives change. They are always have needs. Our church is collecting needed items for Christmas gifts. This is another way to help the homeless.
http://www.youmatterministries.com
Merry Christmas and blessings on you and your family. Charity lives on in your heart!
“There are those who say to the poor that they seem to look to be in such good health: ‘You are so lazy! You could work. You are young. You have strong arms.’ You don’t know that it is God’s pleasure for this poor person to go to you and ask for a handout. You show yourself as speaking against the will of God. There are some who say: ‘Oh, how badly he uses it!’ May he do whatever he wants with it! The poor will be judged on the use they have made of their alms, and you will be judged on the very alms that you could have given but haven’t.”
St. John Vianney
Give where you feel led to give. If they are a scammer, that is their problem. I find most people’s instincts are pretty good.
I encountered a guy with a sign at a stop light. I forget what it said but he as a panhandler. It was 1/2 mile for the largest mall in the area. I directed him towards the Burger King with the help wanted sign out front.
the bible says we entertain angels. we give as we are led to by the Holy Spirit. My husband and I feel that once we feel led to give to a panhandler, our work is done. We answer to God...and so do they. If they claim to be homeless and take our money, then go home to a mansion....not my problem. It will be theirs someday when they have to answer to God. I want to be able to hear God say I answered His call if I gave to an angel.
(now...if you bought into the Wen shampoo stuff....THAT is a scam. THAT is worthy of idiot status, IMHO!) :P
I never, ever give anything to those dopes holding signs by intersections. Almost all of them are scammers, people who could work but choose not to. One of them draws sympathy by sitting in a wheelchair with American flags attached. He has been seen folding up his chair after a day’s work, climbing into his car and leaving.
I did break my rule just once, though, when I happened upon a guy holding a cardboard sign by an off-ramp intersection. The sign said, ‘WHY LIE? NEED BEER.’
I gave him a dollar.
There is a black woman that regularly gets free food and goods from a local charity. She lives in an expensive neighborhood, dresses to the nines and drives a jaguar.
We made the mistake of commenting on her nice car when she was picking up a Thanksgiving meal (turkey and all the sides). Mistakenly thought she was picking up for someone else. She got all nasty and said “Don’t judge me”.
There are plenty of organizations such as The Salvation Army who provide meals, shelter and clothing to "the needy" but less attention is given to smaller organizations who are down in the trenches making a big difference one heart at a time.
My uncle was a pastor, he never had much money to start with, but was always very generous. Whenever he could, if someone came to his church asking for money, he gave out of Christian charity never asking for it in return.
He told me many times, he’d walk down the street and be approached by someone asking for money “to buy something to eat.” My uncle would say “Come on, let me take you in to that restaurant right there, I’ll buy you a nice hot meal.” Nine times out of ten, they’d curse him out and walk away.