I went to The King of Burgers one time, with an ultra liberal co worker. Guy comes around to each table, puts a card on each “Please help me, I am deaf and mute, a dollar is all I ask”. Then he circled back, and collected the cards, and contributions. Naturally Lib gives a buck, and chastises me for being heartless. On the way out of the parking lot, I slowly pulled up behind the ‘deaf guy’ and blasted my horn. He nearly jumped out of his socks, and cussed at us. “Better heartless, than brainless”, I remarked. Lib turned bright red, and it was a silent five minute ride back to work.
A scam so old, it pre-dates welfare.
IT’S A LIVING: Not all techies make their profits on the job. Dennis S. Buck, a deaf computer programmer (who also happened to be in a wheelchair and whose boss deemed him unpromotable) supplemented his $8-an-hour wage the old-fashioned way: peddling sign-language cards in airports and shopping malls around the country. At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, he earned $750 to $1,000 a weekend. He describes his career in Deaf Peddler: Confessions of an Inside Man, out last month from Gallaudet University Press.
The time-tested strategy was simple. Pass around cards containing a message like, “I am a deaf person selling this sign-language guide to meet my living expenses. Will you kindly make a donation?” Then circle the room again to pick up the cards or donations.
This has been going on since the late 1800s.
I just sign “Get a job” - many don’t know what I ‘said’ to them, too funny sometimes.