People going car to car begging for money

jay1988

Had an oul wan come up to me at a bus stop in Coolock this morning and asked me had I 'a euro for the bingo', when I told her I only had change for the bus she turned to my gf and asked her could she have a sup of her coffe coz she was thirsty :-/

TheLastMohican

True story. Years ago I was tapped by a fine strapping young girl at Kings Cross Station, London. She hadn't enough money to buy a ticket to get home to Basildon in Essex. I gave her a fiver and she thanked me. About a year later I was tapped again by the same girl, same story buy I said NO. Two years later as I got of a train from Luton, the same girl, same story scenario. I decided to have a tea and cake at the cafeteria and watch her modus operandi. She got money from, maybe, 5% of those asked and just as she pocketed it went straight to the next target. When I had finished I approached her, "Jasus, you must be going to Basildon via first class round-the-world". She then pointed to a young man sitting askew at the corner of a seat:"He's my boyfriend and he needs eighty quid a day to stop the shakes." The last few lines are probably true as he looked a bit out of it. This girl had sparkling eyes, good skin, nice hair and I would say was not a junkie herself. Is it possible that she could find herself in that position because of love/obsession/delusion?

No Pants

Keep the windows rolled up and the doors locked. If you can't manage that, question then or make fun. Ask why they brought a van load of someone else's kids with them in the van if they were planning to sell the van. Ask how they were planning to get home once the van was sold.

super_furry

They're clearly doing it so they can save up for a car.

the_syco

HurtLocker wrote: »

*before people accuse me of rascism they were actually Romanian.

I doubt it. They were probably Roma. They're hated more in Romania than we hate the travellers here in Ireland!

TheLastMohican wrote: »

"He's my boyfriend and he needs eighty quid a day to stop the shakes."

I'd say pimp would be a more likely word, and she probably did it out of fear.

AK333

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

There used to be a one legged Romanian girl at Newlands Cross scabbing

She gets around - was in Clonmel at one stage. This one had a fake leg which she would take off, hide it and then beg and then when she was leaving in the evening, she would put the leg back on and walk off

trashcan

StephenHendry wrote: »

there is one guy with a northern irish accent who sits on a bag every morning at the ha'penny bridge, lots of people give him change and i've seen people buy him coffee alot as well.

Yeah I've seen him. He's there practically every morning. Can't figure him out. He looks fit and healthy enough, not like a junkie or you typical begger. There's another young lad who sits on the bridge, he's foreign, have seen him a couple of times now on his mobile phone. Must be the Celtic Tiger aftermath, Even the beggers have gone upmarket.

paulbok

Wasn't there a law passed / proposed this week that bans collecting money in traffic (legit charity or not)?
Won't make a bit of difference to the chancers though.

Too Tough To Die

Homeless guy in a wheelchair i helped up onto the foothpath from the road before. I walk past him most days and he gives me a hello so i throw him a few pence every sunday but on wednesday the cheeky bastard put the hand out instead of giving me the standard wave. No few pence for him this sunday. Not sure where me and him go from here, bit nervous about it to be honest, but i feel i have to make a stand.

niallo27

There used to be a fella out by Ivans shop in limerick who had some kind of foot for a hand and a hand for a foot, he was ****ed up anyway, this foot thing would scrap across your window screen with a cloth on it. Scary ****.

darlett

niallo27 wrote: »

There used to be a fella out by Ivans shop in limerick who had some kind of foot for a hand and a hand for a foot, he was ****ed up anyway, this foot thing would scrap across your window screen with a cloth on it. Scary ****.

I believe that was Mr. McGreg


Embarrassingly enough for myself I certainly got scammed last week in a similar method to the OP. As I parked in Aldi carpark in Cavan a car with a ginger haired chap parked up beside me and beckoned me my window. I did which goes down as a first mistake in any cynics book, but lifes too short to completely blank the world. He gave me a spiel, his wife was in Dublin in hospital with his newborn and he couldnt get his bank card until tomorrow for some random reason and didnt have the cash to pay for the petrol to pay the journey. He would get the money back to me, post it whatever. He even said he'd pray for me. All I actually had in cash was a tenner. Reader, I gave it to him. What swung it for him has his accent. It was a cross between a 'Hey Boss' and somewhat strangely perhaps a hard-of-hearing speaker who cant actually hear the tone or even sound of their own voice, which made me sorry for him. On the balance of probabilities I felt it was bull**** but lest there be a small chance that it was true I didn't want to not help. And I had NCT the next day so I hoped the good chi would help (and it did ).

That I have helped continue a vicious cycle is true, and I apologise for being muggins. Its only the OPs post which makes me realise officially that I was a muggins-I'd never come across this method before. Next time it happens I shall step on this bug.

UCDVet

Clutchkick wrote: »

(Not really sure if this is the right place)..My first experience with this was in the McDonalds car park in Waterford about two years ago. I was with a mate waiting to have food brought out to us that we just ordered from the drive through, a traveller got out of a car that had just came into the car park and made a b-line for us. He had a big sob story about how his mother was in hospital and was very sick, he hadn’t a penny to his name, he didn’t eat anything since the previous day, he wouldn’t ask if he wasn’t desperate and would we find it in the kindness of our hearts to give him something to buy a burger with. We gave him the loose change we had from our order, just so he’d go away.

The second time something like this happened was about a year ago in a filling station. I had just got into the car after filling up when a man came over with his hand outstretched. He was all flattery, ”Jesus it’s a lovely car, I’d say ya paid a fortune for it etc.” then he spotted my iPhone “It’s a lovely phone, I’d love one of them but I could never afford it”, after about 10 minutes of flattery the sob story came. “ I came all the way from Clare, I was supposed to meet up with someone to sell him the van but the fecker never showed up, I have a crowd of children with me that I was supposed to bring to a party and I haven’t a cent to me name, would ya give me something to put into the van to get us home, there’s not a scrap of diesel in it, me wife’s over in the van, she’s crying her eyes out, she’s absolutely devastated , there not even my kids, I was supposed to bring them to a party” and on and on he went repeating himself again and again in one big sentence. Then he went on swearing he’d give it back, he’d post it on to me, he’ll give me his number, take the reg of the van, here’s me licence. I threw €15 down by the gear stick when I got into the car and of course he spotted it so I couldn’t use the I haven’t a penny excuse, I gave it to him and he had the cheek to ask if I had anything else to give him, I just wanted him to **** off without stabbing me more than anything.

The latest was earlier tonight; again it was in McDonald’s car park in Waterford. A traveller came up to the car and knocked on the window, I opened the window and the hand came straight in, I shook his hand and then of course the sob story came “I came all the way from Gorey, I was supposed to sell the car to someone but he never showed up, me wife’s over in the car, I have a daughter in the back, she’s very sick with bronchitis, would you spare me a few pound for two gallon of petrol to get us home” this time I said to myself not again and told him I hadn’t a penny on me, my friend gave him €4 that he had in his pocket.

Has anyone ever had any experience with this sort of thing, it’s the kind of thing that if you told anyone the immediate response would be “oh if that was me” but we’ve all heard of people getting stabbed over stupid things like a phone and you just don’t know what kind of stunt they could try to pull if you refused them. I don’t mean to sound discriminant towards travellers but this is just from my experience.

Why do people keep begging?
Because people keep giving them money!

Forget minimum wage - I know office workers who don't make so much money. No boss, flexible hours, a good wage and no taxes.

UCDVet

TheLastMohican wrote: »

True story. Years ago I was tapped by a fine strapping young girl at Kings Cross Station, London. She hadn't enough money to buy a ticket to get home to Basildon in Essex. I gave her a fiver and she thanked me. About a year later I was tapped again by the same girl, same story buy I said NO. Two years later as I got of a train from Luton, the same girl, same story scenario. I decided to have a tea and cake at the cafeteria and watch her modus operandi. She got money from, maybe, 5% of those asked and just as she pocketed it went straight to the next target. When I had finished I approached her, "Jasus, you must be going to Basildon via first class round-the-world". She then pointed to a young man sitting askew at the corner of a seat:"He's my boyfriend and he needs eighty quid a day to stop the shakes." The last few lines are probably true as he looked a bit out of it. This girl had sparkling eyes, good skin, nice hair and I would say was not a junkie herself. Is it possible that she could find herself in that position because of love/obsession/delusion?

The problem with professional liars is that you can't trust them....

PizzamanIRL

It's the fake beggars that give the truly homeless and broke people a bad name who could actually do with a few euro. People don't know if they're giving money to a con artist or not.

Oranage2

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

It's the fake beggars that give the truly homeless and broke people a bad name who could actually do with a few euro. People don't know if they're giving money to a con artist or not.

Id be very surprised if there were genuine cases in Ireland of people needing money to survive, and if if a person did get into such a bad state then cash isn't going to help him/her.

wicklowstevo

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

There used to be a one legged Romanian girl at Newlands Cross scabbing

she used to be working in limerick . and she was one nasty piece of scum, spitting at people who wouldn't give her cash and getting arrested constantly for intimidating and robbing from old people ,

wicklowstevo

that approaching people in a car park or forecourt is a gig a gang of members of the mobile minority from Waterford have been using for years , doesn't seem like much but you'd be surprised how much they can make over a few hours targeting the right people, they were up in Wicklow a few years ago in the rathnew area, last I saw them they were parked in ferrybank Waterford with three or four 131 Toyotas,

sunnysoutheast

wicklowstevo wrote: »

that approaching people in a car park or forecourt is a gig a gang of members of the mobile minority from Waterford have been using for years , doesn't seem like much but you'd be surprised how much they can make over a few hours targeting the right people, they were up in Wicklow a few years ago in the rathnew area, last I saw them they were parked in ferrybank Waterford with three or four 131 Toyotas,

A favourite spot for this used to be the service station opposite the people's park. There was a thread on it on the Waterford forum a while back.

Not only do you get the request for a tenner of fuel with some bullsh1t reason any valuables left in an unlocked car will go walkabout. I was offered a plasma TV from the back of a van there a few years ago, I declined as I didn't think they would honour the warranty.

JustAThought

What annoys me is that aggressive begging on roads, in traffic, following women down streets in twos with hands out begging as they walk backwards is all OK by the gaurds ; as is standing alongside People Withdrawing money from aTM's... but try shaking a
Bucket for a cancer charity & the gaurds will harass you off the street.

Twisted system.