Originally Posted by Debra Mc
I forgot. Door to door salesman. I have a sign posted on mine that says No solicting, Beggars or Panhandlers. If I have to answer late at nite it is with S&W. HAd a few bad looking folks wanting gas money & when you tell them that you will take them to the gas station they backoff. You know they are druggies.
OMG, one time a few years ago, I was downtown with Sasha and we were shopping or something. There were a bunch of bums on the street, and normally I don't pay attention and keep walking (even though I do feel bad, some of them are dangerous and I'm not going to risk my life to give a dollar to a stranger, plus, if you give to one, you have 17 others chasing you down). If you've ever been downtown Montreal in the summer on St-Catherine street, you know these people are everywhere, it's not the slums by any means, but most of them just sit on cardboard boxes and have a cup or hat or whatever for passers by to drop change in.
This one dude was really hounding people and he came up to me and was like "I need money, can't you give me some?" I almost NEVER have cash on me, only my cards so I'm usually safe, but we took the bus into town so I had about 3 bucks and change in my pocket so I could take the bus back to my car, and I told the guy I didn't have enough to give out, just for my bus. He was like 'oh, I have a bus ticket, I'll trade you" I responded "No, leave me alone, I'm not giving my money, and all I have are my cards". So he fires back "Well then lets go to the bank, you can give me like, 5 bucks or something"
DO I look like I'm made of money? Dude, back off! And, bank machines only give you 20 dollar bills, duh.
All the while, I keep walking and he's really IN MY FACE, and Sasha is trying to get between us, obviously to protect me, and the guy was just shoving him out of the way. We got to the corner and started crossing the street and he totally was following us! I was running, and he was chasing me with his arm outstretched, and Sasha, who was hurrying across with me turned around and said " Dude, if you ****ing touch my girlfriend, I'm going to leave you in a bloody pulp in the middle of the street". He finally backed off and went to bug someone else, but seriously, who do these people think they are?
This was in the middle of the day, on a busy street downtown with hundreds of people within a 20 foot radius, and this guy was after my 3 dollars I had for the bus... And to top it all off, Sasha gave me heck afterward, because it was my fault for even talking to him. I should have kept going and ignored him.
Most of the bums just kind of sit there, I feel bad for them, but honestly, I work hard for the little money I do have, and I have tons of debt and no assets, so it's not like I have any spare cash to hand out. Sometimes I'll run in to a tim hortons and get a coffee and a muffin and bring it out, but I will never give money, because they just spend it on drugs instead of trying to get off the street. There are homeless shelters and the old brewery mission for these people and help is available.
I can't imagine someone coming to my door and asking for money. I would tell them to get off my property before I call the cops.