A New Hussle?

VegasGeorge

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I was at a moderately upscale shopping center in San Antonio this afternoon, waiting for my wife to get her hair done. As I was standing next to our SUV, an older lady drove up next to me in a respectable looking late model sedan. Her passenger window was open, and she leaned over to make eye contact with me, and waived me over. She started out saying she needed directions to Austin. I thought for a minute, then truthfully told her I wasn't familiar enough with the area to tell her how to get back to the highway. I suggested she ask someone else. This is when she told me that she'd just gotten a call that her daughter had been in a terrible accident involving a big rig, and that her minister had loaned her the car to get there. But, and now she waived some dollar bills in her right hand, she went on to say she didn't have enough money to buy gas. She invoked the name of Jesus, and asked me for gas money. That's when I backed off and said, "Sorry lady, I just don't do that." She drove off saying something about "the Lord."

I've been panhandled before, but never under such circumstances. The lady was well dressed and her car was clean and reasonably new. I wonder how much she makes in a day, driving through fashionable parking lots, giving people that jiveass story? Based on appearances, she seems to be doing quite well. These are strange times!

PS: A search this evening failed to reveal any big rig or truck involved accident in the Austin, TX area.
 
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VegasGeorge these are strange times. Years ago we would do what ever we could do to help but these are different times. Don't know if it was a hussle or not but you did the right thing.
 
I'm glad you didn't fall for her lie. I don't trust people who invoke the name of "The Lord". That's a big red flag for me. So is asking for money. I usually carry some $1 bills to hand to people who seem really down on their luck. That's ALL I let them have.
But when our neighbor's house was badly burned, we quickly donated $100, she has kids. Good kids.
There are times when....
 
The first winter we lived in Puerto Rico there was this guy, very well dressed, spoke English without an accent, and he button holed me at a street festival and told me that his dad and he were down in La Perla, not a good place to be in the first place, and that they got beat up and robbed. His dad was in the hospital and he had to catch a ferry. He didn't have any money and asked if I would give his six bucks. I gave him six bucks. A week later we came out of an open mic and the guy was hustling two tourists with the same story. I said something and he took off without a word. But the eight years we lived down there he was around all the time and everyone local knew him. In fact, people called him Six Dollar. As far as I know that was his name. He lived in a shelter. Looking at him you would never expect that. Over the years I tried to get him to give me my six dollars back but I never got it.

I started busking down there and my wife wasn't particularly happy with that. She pretty much thinks it is the same as pan handling. I consider it entertaining. Old San Juan, where we lived, is full of buskers and pan handlers. I guess it just depends which side you are sitting on. She thinks setting up on a corner on a Thursday afternoon is pan handling, setting up on the same corner during a street festival is entertaining. Anyway, I was out there most Thursdays regardless, playing and singing songs for the tourists.
 
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