I’ll add a story to that- I gave a black co-worker a ride to and from work for weeks because of her sob story about her broken down car. One day she asked to stop at the grocery store because she had gone to social services and got food stamps. They issued her $90 on the spot. So she had bags full of name brand snacks etc. Just burned me up. After that I told her sorry, I couldn’t give her a ride any more.
My wife and I refer to those sad sacks as ‘professional victims.’ The really tragic part of the story is that they’ve taken over the federal gummint. At least for now.
That reminds me of one of my former co-workers, who was also a neighbor. She approached me with a sob story about how she couldn’t drive because she couldn’t afford car repairs, so I agreed to ferry her back and forth to work. Well, eventually it turned out that the sob story was BS and the real problem was she lost her license due to a hit-and-run. She didn’t ride with me any more.