Happens here more than you know.
My daughter in law spent about a year working as a social worker in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district setting up programs for the homeless for the Salvation Army.
She could point out each of the panhandlers along the waterfront and elsewhere who were into 6 figure incomes and who were picked up in Cadillacs at the end of a hard day of begging. These guys would fight to run others out of their “territory”.
Happens a lot more than most realize.
We had a guy with no legs who used to come into the Firehouse to use the bathroom. The guy had a Monkey and used to sell pencils.
he traveled around on a platform with wheels and used a chunk of rubber to push himself along. He used the firehouse because the guys would lift him off his cart so he could use the toilet.
We played a lot of tricks on the guy and once we set off a firecracker and scared the crap out of his monkey.His monkey had a big funeral when it died (Not from the firecracker, from old age.) and he retired.
He had a home in Fla. and his wife picked him up in a Cadillac after his days work.
Oh!! Did I mention he also ran numbers.
AND it's not the only scam.
They have teams that sell 'novelty items' at intersections, such as kool-aid crystals in a straw, allegedly for some 'charity', which doesn't really exist.
They buy a carton 50 for a dollar, and sell them for a dollar a piece.