Some people have no shame

Mona and I just went down to Countdown to get supplies (aka icecream!) and I waited in the car while she went in coz I'm still in my PJs.

While I was waiting this guy comes up and knocks on the window and says, "excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me and my sister (who was standing behind him." I was like "what do you want?"

He says "we've run out of gas, we just need, like, four dollars.."

I said, "no way!" and shut the window.

I then sat in the car for 20 mins (Mona is not speedy gonzales by any means) watching them shamelessly scab, and try to scab, money off people as they came and went from their cars.

If I thought they honestly needed it for gas I might feel sorry for them, but I didn't come down with yesterday's shower and it makes me really angry! Especially given how expensive petrol and groceries are atm, how dare they harrass good, hardworking people for money just coz they are lazy. And the thought that if they ask enough people they could make a couple of hundred bucks a night from people who feel too intimidated or embarrassed to say no

Ugh, we had a couple of people doing that at our local supermarket too, but they'd also look for opportunities to steal from people as well. They were serial offenders and they ended up putting warning notices up around the area to alert people to the scam. Made me angry too - and you should have heard DH!
LOL at the lecture to Mona, I can just imagine you on the way home

My Mum got some Lotto at her local supermaket and when she turned around to get her trolley and go to the car it was empty. The one moment her back was turned someone stole all of her groceries. Needless to say she want do that again!

Ugh, where do people find the balls to ask for money from complete strangers??

We've had a few ask us for money etc as we walk along the road (we live right next door too 2 bottle shops, an RSA, a bar AND a restaurant) and it's crazy the audacity of people asking for money for a quick fix (alcohol, cigarettes and even drugs)

Maya wrote: PS. It was a great opportunity to lecture Mona all the way home about the importance of getting a job and the evils of cigarettes and alcohol which I'm sure is what they were really after money for

Hey now they aren't always the evils. I earn (well Nigel does ) the money to pay for mine.

But totally agree, I hate people that scam money like that (but then I can be like that in town with smokes and drinks (i'm a drink and smoke slut sometimes ).

LisaD wrote: I remember living in Italy and there would be woman on the footpaths holding out their babies so you would feel sorry for them and give them money

Ooh, I remember these people when we were there on honeymoon - they were on every corner and I just about cried when I saw one young girl down in a railway station with a REALLY young baby (like, it looked two weeks old). I guess compared to that, the supermarket scavengers aren't that bad.

In London the Eastern European immigrants walk along the tubes with their babies asking for money. I hated how they used their kids for the sympathy. You also find alot of homeless people sat right beside cashflow machines asking for money - used to really annoy me when I'd done a nightshift, working my butt off for my money and then someone would just expect me to just hand it over to them for nothing. (And I know alot of them have really sad stories, but you get hardened to it after awhile).
I'm really sad that the current economic situation in this country is resulting in these sort of happenings.

I must admit when we were in London I did feel sorry for the beggars when we were walking home from dinner, it was only about 7pm but it was Nov and FREEZING and that was with our nice warm clothes on.
I did give a guy some change for a coffee one morning when we were there tho, and he genuinely did use it to buy coffee coz we were outside a 7-11 type place and he went in and bought it. Not that I'm sure the coffee wasn't just to help with the night before's hangover but it was just so damn cold!
I feel less sympathetic here tho, our welfare system, whilst not perfect, is one of the better ones in the world and there really is no excuse for begging or scabbing. It really bugs me that young, fit males are able to get an unemployment bene and sit around on their butts, but bottom line is they are entitled to it and if they choose to spend it on crap then I'm sure not going to fork out my hard earned change in a supermarket carpark!

Watch out for people knocking on your car windows !!!
A lady from work undid her window for somebody last Saturday and he reached into her car and grabed her hand bag and took off. She had the $100.00 petrol vouchers in it that she had just won in the work raffle and a bit of cash. She is now scared to stay home alone as she had some address details in her bag...not her keys thank god as she had those in the ignition. Can't beleive this happpened to this lovely lady she's such a nice person even does volunteer work at City Mission.
Hope karma gets the B*stard.

PS my boss went out and brought her a new bag and replaced the vouchers which was really sweet.

I had a guy knock on our door one sat afternoon and said I ran out of petrol do have any at home spare....just enough to get me to the petrol station??.

We didnt have any but he did get some from someone. I wonder if that was a scam too??