I had a guy wanting money for a bus ticket to “get to work” when I worked in downtown St. Louis years ago. Well, I also rode the bus for like $5 and it was a 50 mile or so round trip and I didn’t have to deal with the traffic or any of that. Well, you could buy like 20 bus passes at a time for a significant discount in a little booklet. I pulled out my bus pass booklet and offered to give the guy a pass and he started yelling at me and calling me racist, etc. I was willing to give him what he wanted and cut out the middle man of buying the bus pass so what was his problem?
I had something similar happen. A guy needed money for lunch. I offered to take him inside the Hardees I we were in front of and buy him a meal and got basically the same response. This is how you can tell the scammers from the real deal.
Now that I own my own business, I get it all the time. It is computers and not cars. The customer is like “I need this computer fixed so I can get online before I (or my relative) go into the hospital and need a laptop to get online.” Auto shops tell the same exact story. “I need new tires put on my car so I can drive my grandma to the hospital.” Everyone always falls for this at first but then get burned and says enough is enough. The mechanics tell me how they never see a cent for putting on those tires and then are unwilling to help anyone. They also tell me how the person with no money wants the good tires like Michelin and not some cheap tire like Westlake. He offers to do it for obviously valuable collateral like their wedding rings and they refuse and cuss him.
I just had some woman call me a few days ago wanting me to serve as a pawn shop for her PlayStation 4. She was bitching about how the pawn shops around here were just highway robbery and that she knew I could do better. I was like “I don’t really deal in gaming consoles so would only offer mere pennies on the dollar so didn’t think I would be a good fit for this.” She was so tweaked or cracked out on something and just insisted that I buy this or make her a loan on this. I told her to call me back in an hour as I was busy on a job (true) and never heard back. GOOD RIDDANCE! She probably spent all her “government check” on drugs and now her power was about to be shut off as she really wanted $175.
I have found that when you try to help people like this, it is never enough. I gave up after a few death threats and other harrowing situations from these low lifes. They aren’t willing to help themselves and I am not going to help them either.
I used to try and figure out some way to make things work to help them but now I have so many good jobs and have no qualms about moving them along.
There is the old saying “No good deed goes unpunished.” I did some work for a charity today and they said it is a constant battle. I told them I had some stuff I would love to donate and get a tax writeoff and they were all for it. I told them I had gotten to where I would trash or recycle things for scrap because of all the nonsense. They were not surprised and said they would gladly accept my equipment. I told them it wasn’t just JUNK which is a problem. People want to dump crap that needs to be trashed off at a charity for a tax writeoff and then the charity is left having to pay for the disposal.
Anyway, the said it would be something they could sell and that the proceeds would go to a good cause so I am going to try again. I told them I would take it back and recycle it if it wasn’t sold in a timely manner or brought in troublemakers.
About 30 years ago I was following a woman driving on a blown tire on her Cadillac when her hubcap came off. Knowing it was at least a $150 hubcap, I retrieved it and found her car down the street at what used to be a gas station but now was a mini mart wit self service pumps. On of the clerks had come outside and was explaining he couldnt help her.
I gave her the hubcap and told her that she should keep it because they were expensive. She looked at it and at me, and asked me if it would fix her tire. I said nothing was going to fix her tire or rim and without saying another word gave it a heave worthy of a discus thrower sailed it across the street and turned her back on me.
Hey, not car related - but when someone asks me for money, I try to ask them what they need. Of course they say they just need a few dollars. But I ask why? You can’t eat money. Or sleep under it. What do you NEED?
The last time I did that, the guy said he needed food. So I took him in the store and told the cashier that I’d pay for whatever he got. So he got quite a bit of food, but the six pack went back in the cooler. If I’m wasting money on beer, I’m drinking it too.
As far as the Jag and the life lesson, we all need to learn the difference of need vs want. I need food and I need water. I want steak and I want beer. Make sure you can afford what you need (transportation), then after your needs are met, if you can afford it, buy what you want (Jag). I’m afraid too many people fall into the trap of thinking they deserve the Jag when they can only afford the Corolla.
Yes, the police were called and I blew half a day a few times waiting for an officer to arrive and make the reports as well. Again, more time was wasted that could have been spent dealing with good customers.
Talk radio advertising is now my goldmine. I only hit a small part of the population but I am really skimming the cream off the top. A few nuts still slip through but they are far and few…
The first time I did that it worked well. I sat down and talked to them while they ate their lunch. They were very grateful. They had simply fallen on hard times. The second time I offered to do the same thing the beggar only wanted money, not really food. I refuse to help support their drug/alcohol habit.
