Live in a big city like Chicago, and you will find them everywhere downtown, especially on every street corner. On the sidewalks on both sides of the bridge on both sides of the Chicago river. I used to live in chicago for a few years, decades ago. As a then young single guy, it sure was fun. There used to be this fella that wore Marine combat fatigues that used to stand outside of the Lyric Operah House holding out his cup, "Can you help out a disabled Marine" that drove a Mercedes that he parked in a garage a couple of blocks away. The end of that guy was one day as myself and some fellow trades, pipe fitters, electricians, ect were sitting outside having lunch and some school busses pulled up with little kids to see a special Operah matinee' and he stood outside of the bus doors begging the little kids for their milk money as they got off the buses. I don't know who called the cops, but by the time they got there, the guy was a bloody pulp. When the cops found out how and why it happened, he got cuffed, poured into the back of a cruiser, and no one ever saw him again.
There used to be this one fella standing on the Monroe St bridge panhandling every morning and every night that I'd say Hi to, but I lived there long enough to know better. I let him take advantage of the tourists that used to walk around staring up at the skyline while holding their cameras as they were pick pocketed by street thugs. Christmas came and I got my annual bonus that ran well into the thou$and$ and cashed my check at the bank in the lobby before going home. To me, it was free money. So as I'm headed home I see him on the bridge and I'm in a good mood, so I give him a $100 bill. Free money to me, so no loss. I tell him "Merry Christmas, get yourself a nice dinner and a room for the night", and I made my way to the commuter train. Couple weeks later, I see him in the lobby of the Mercantile Exchange where I worked, wearing a security uniform, working as a security guard. "Congratulations, good for you". Every day for about two weeks I say Hi to him as I pass him. One day I'm crossing the bridge and he's back out there. "What happened?" I asked him. He told me that he made a whole lot more money panhandling on the bridge. I never talked to him again after that.
So one day I'm over headed to lunch at the train station, and as I'm walking in, there's a guy outside at the doors begging for money to get himself food. Ok, I'm in a good mood, so I go in, stop at the first restaurant and get the best sandwhich they have, some fries, and a bottle of water. I take it out and hand it to him, tell him to enjoy. He throws it on the ground, yells at me that he wanted money to buy his own food. I knew he meant booze, and thats why I bought the food for him.
Back then, I used to smoke. One evening I'm walking to the train station after working late. There's a huge fella that comes at me and tells me to give me a couple of smokes. Didn't ask, but told me. I'm standing there with a lit smoke hanging out the corner of my mouth and tell him, "I don't smoke". Now, he says that he's going to kick my a... "Good, its been a long time since I had my a.. kicked, and I need it kicked real bad, so come on and kick my a..". I went towards him, he took off. Looking back on it, it was getting dark, weren't many around, I'm lucky that he didn't carbe my heart out.
When I used to rent in Chicago and catch the subway, used to be panhandlers at every subway stop, in droves. So used to be a couple of young girls that should have been in school, Junior High, as I recall, selling candy every morning and afternoon that I'm pretty sure their old man stole from who knows where, and he'd make them sell it as he probably laid around at "the crib" waiting for them to bring him home the profit before he needed to go steal some more for them to sell. I always walked by them, ignoring them, really bothered though. So one weekend I go home to Indiana years before moving back, well callosed bythe panhandlers. I go to the mall, and outside are two little country girls selling Girl Scout cookies or band candy, "Hey Mr, would yo like to buy...?", and I exploded on them. PANHANDLERS ARE EVERYWHERE, and I go into the mall. As I'm walking in, I remind myself that I'm not in Chicago, I'm back home and just T'd off on two little girls that were legitamately selling for band or Girl Scouts. I felt so bad, that I went back out, appologized and bought them out.
I could go on and on and on. Maybe one day I'll share with you the setup shell games I used to see teams of bad guys pull on unsuspecting folks on the subway. Not on the comuter trains that they'd be tossed off of for not having a ticket, but rather the subways where they could get away with it. Anyway, I will leave it up to you and others to decide whether you're being setup as a weak sap, or you're actually encountering someone in real need.
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