[DesertRhino]

Never give out money at street corners. It teaches them to associate people with food.. A fed bear is a dead bear!

As for “her children”, the sad puppy beside them, the pregnant belly, the homemade crutch...in the bum trade those are known as “props”.

[wally_bert]

I’ve been penniless in my life some times but I have never begged on the street.

I found a way to keep going.

Seeing perfectly healthy people wanting handouts sickens me.

[cyclotic]

There’s a bum who hangs out on the corner just north of Baltimore holding a sign said his house burned down.

He’s been there with the same sign for a couple years.

Just north of there lives an old man. He has some sort of neck problem and appears to be unable to lift his head.

He walks along the road constantly. I see him nearly every time I drive by. Wears raggedly old clothes and looks headless from behind. I can’t even make my neck ride as low as his.

He just walks around. I don’t know him or his story, just see him walking and being as productive as he can. Quite different from the bum lying about his house.

[ETCM]

As for “her children”, the sad puppy beside them, the pregnant belly, the homemade crutch...in the bum trade those are known as “props”.

Possibly the most disgusting practice I ever witnessed was in Mumbai, India. Beggar women carried babies that appeared to be very sick/dead, while crying and begging for money. Talking to the locals, these women "rent" babies that are drugged and unconscious as props to shock their marks. The babies do not last but a couple weeks before they die. It would be disturbing, but not surprising to see such an act here in the future.

Never give out money at street corners.

Those who are not just scamming people out of their money are mostly insane and dangerous. Interact with them at your own risk... Too bad the poor Samaritan didn't understand this.

[MarMema]

The first time I was in Moscow I saw a child in a wheelchair at the metro, with a woman. I was heading over to give them money when my Russian friends grabbed the back of my coat and literally pulled me back, telling me to not even look that way as it was mob activity.

Sure enough an hour or so later we saw them again and the child was walking just fine.

[ridesthemiles]

IIRC, years go, there was a chronic female panhandler in Los Angeles, along Wilshire Blvd. Was on her ‘station’ every day.

Finally someone got curious & waited until she left at the end of the day. Followed her a couple of blocks off Wilshire & watched her open up & get into a new Mercedes Benz.

[Shark24]

DesertRhino wrote: “Never give out money at street corners. It teaches them to associate people with food.. A fed bear is a dead bear!
As for “her children”, the sad puppy beside them, the pregnant belly, the homemade crutch...in the bum trade those are known as “props”.”

Yep, I carry a few bags of Gatoraide/powerbars/toiletries and offer it up. Non legit folks normally decline.
Cheers