Let’s call them what they are…Shysters…

1:31 pm on Wednesday, November 12, 2003

I was on my way to work this morning and like every morning I get to sit for several minutes trying to get through the intersection at Anderson Mill Road and 183. It was a decent morning. A bit drizzly but I put the top on the Defender so I was staying dry.

For some reason I noticed a black late model Honda Acccord pull into the parking lot at Half Price Books. I watched a quite shabbily dressed lady get out of the car. Didn’t look like she should be driving a car like that. I then watched her walk around to her trunk and get something out. Don’t ask me why I was watching her. You do these things when you’ve got no radio to listen to I guess. It looked like a piece of cardboard or something. I then assumed she was headed to the UPS Store right next door but she didn’t head that way. She started walking towards the intersection with her what I now guessed was a sign. Sure enough. She set up shop on the corner with her sign begging for money. *sigh* I guess there’s enough suckers in the world to make it a decent paying line of work and no tax -free to boot.

It confirmed suspicions I’ve had for years. I have only ever been tempted to give money to one of these folks once. There is a lady that begs on the same corner fairly regularly. I don’t know why but she seems genuinely ashamed that she’s out there. She never looks you in the eye just at the ground and I’ve seen her crying several times. I just wonder where her two kids are they she claims she has on the sign. Probably with the nanny.

2 Comments

27

Comment by Bill Bradford

2003/11/12 @ 13:34

I always look at the shoes. Amazing how so many broke people can get brand new shoes…

28

Comment by Mando

2003/11/13 @ 9:26

A friend of mine recently completed defensive driving and he was told that it’s fairly common for police to pose as streetcorner bums in order to check registration and inspection tags.

The obligatory anecdote from defensive driving:

A woman drives along, puffing away at a joint. She stops at a stop sign and sees a bum staring intently at her joint. Being a compassionate, if somewhat misguided individual, she offers the joint to the bum.

“Austin PD. Ma’am, step out of the car.”
“*Click*”.

Moral of the story? Never, EVER offer a bum anything illegal :).

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