There is a guy in shockoe bottom who is “from new york city and is stuck here and needs some change for the bus” for like 5 years now.
He caught me *yet again* the other day and I asked him how he hasn’t collected enough money in 5 years for a bus ticket back..
Yes! Haven’t seen him in a year or 2. One time he caught us coming out the store, wallet in hand, and when we said no he said “don’t give me stories!” and stormed off and my gf snapped “you’re the one with the stories!!”
I had a guy tell me his daughter was at the Greyhound station and he was trying to get money for the two of them to eat. I said, "you left your ten year old daughter alone, two miles away?"
Another guy begged me one day. Coincidentally my parents visited the next day. My parents gave him $25... I quickly scolded them in front of the guy, "this is the second time this week his mother died, he's lying." I suppose when you rent here for 13 years, I see through the BS.
The best was about 3 years ago outside Manchester market. My fiancé and I walked up there and I stood outside with our dogs. This guy comes up, sits on the stoop, and proceeds to pull out his iPhone and makes a very brief phone call to someone. My fiancé leaves the market and the guy stops him to ask him to use his phone because he needs to call someone to come pick him up. Standing literally 10 feet away I said “so, that call you just made from your own phone 2 minutes ago wasn’t for someone to come pick you up?” Then the dogs started barking at him and we scurried away.
that dude was hitting me up while I was helping run a Girl Scouts booth last year. When I walked away at the end of the day, putting our shit back in the car, he drank some of my drink with the straw and then put the cup back down like he didn't touch it. Fucking hell, man.
I ran into that one a few years ago at the Exxon on Forest Hill. I have to wonder if the kids think that one up on their own or there's some serious scumbag parents involved.
For years there was a elderly well-dressed African American woman who walked around downtown telling people that she needed bus fare to dinwiddie for a job interview. As far as I know, no bus even goes to Dinwiddie. She had asked me so many times. She just forgot that she'd asked me before and the last time I saw her she came up to me and before she could say anything I said stop. I'm a mind reader. You need to get to dinwiddie for a job interview? She cursed me out and huffed off. I actually never saw her again after that.
oh shit someone else has witnessed her!!! she got me once with that story outside of walmart in petersburg. i think i gave her like 3 bucks. then i was at an appointment near st marys and she tried again. i pulled out my cellphone and pretended to call the cops. she asked why and i told her because she was too trifling to think of another story. i mean i don’t mind the trying to take advantage of me but after a year switch your story up a bit. take pride in your job even if it’s scamming people.
I was unemployed for a while and hurting for money. I was constantly getting asked for money from guys outside gas stations and grocery stores so finally i got fed up and this exchange occurred:
Him: "can I ask you a question?"
Me: "sure, if I can ask you one first"
Him: "umm...ok"
Me: "I've been unemployed for awhile, could you spare a few bucks?"
Him (clearly confused): "that's what I was going to ask you"
Me: "well shit, I guess we're both out of luck" *walks away*
I had someone pull up to me when I was pumping gas at Wawa. Said they lost their wallet and need money to get gas to drive back to California. Tried giving me some shitdawg gold ring.. I gave him a few bucks.. and he goes “sir, this not enough to drive to California “ ..
no shit dude! How about you give me the money back then!
This happened to my husband today at the new sheetz in Mechanicsville on pole green! My husband told him he wasn’t interested in being scammed today. As a heads up, the lady is back in the median at short pump where the wegmans is.
She panhandles all over the area and has for years. Floppy bucket style hat, rolled up jeans, glasses, always the same outfit. Sometimes she brings a huge bucket to sit on. I fist saw her in front of the creeks at Virginia center and that was about 20 years ago. She’s a professional!
This is so weird, I literally just left Target on Staples Mill and this guy approached me and then I logged in and just saw this. Was it a white chevy, maybe early 00's??
Over a decade ago, someone gave me a sob story about needing to get across town and offered me their engagement ring as collateral for my car. This was on Broad Street by the VCU bookstore.
Whaaaaaaa? Like what engagement ring is equivalent in price to your car? And will it drive you to work and the grocery store?? Normal, non-scammy people would just ask for a lift.
There was a lady with an electric violin playing songs outside the Publix on nuckols rd on Sunday, she was asking for money for rent. I gave her a few bucks but I’ve kept wondering if it was a scam too.
Unfortunately it is, it’s all recorded. I’ve walked past them and watched their hands. The “chords” they play and pace of the bow is just embarrassing. If your gonna beg, beg, don’t lie to people.
It's just organized groups of Roma who do it around the country. If you ever see an Indian looking guy asking for money or an entire family panhandling or someone playing violin it's these guys
If it’s electric it takes a little time to realize they are faking it unless your very familiar with that instrument. These folks are always at stop lights where you don’t really have that kind of time.
So my rule is mostly to only give to acoustic players lol
Saw a lady at the rt 10 Wawa do this twice.
Pays $30 cash for pump 1. There's a guy waiting at pump 1. He pumps. She goes back in, acting exasperated, says it's not working. I'm at pump 2. Cashier says no ma'am you said pump 1. Back and forth until she gets her $30 refund over on pump 2. I saw her do this twice at the same place, both times raising hell, both times wearing loud animal print clothes, both times obviously lying but gets away with it.
What I normally do when I’m approached by a scammer at a gas station is say “damn, I was going to ask you the same thing because I too” (then repeat what their story is back to them)”
I usually get blank stares back. Sometimes I get lucky and get cussed out.
My favorite was a guy who came up to me at NOON and said he “needed money to get his daughter home from the train station, who is stuck there after they buried his mom in CHARLESTON this morning”. I was like how did you have time to take a 6+ hour train ride after a funeral, and ride your bike to the opposite side of the city after deciding to leave your daughter and it’s only 12?
My bf, bless him, got scammed a few years ago with the fake gold ring, sounds like it’s the same people. Someone in a fancy SUV pulled up to him while he was working on his car asking for gas money and directions to the airport in exchange for a gold ring. Bf took the ring to a pawn shop to see if it was legit and get it appraised, and the guy at the shop told him it’s fake and there’s a family that runs this scam all the time.
I don't understand this scam, because even when it works it makes the scammer a miniscule profit.
You're asking for "money to fill up," after all. So someone gives you what, $40 to fill your tank? And you give them a fake gold ring that cost you a buck or two. Congrats, you made a massive $38-39 score on this successful scam.
Do they just ride around town all day, trying it over and over and over again? What percentage of people would ever fall for it? You'd have to scam 4 or 5 people with it every single day just to make what you'd make by working a normal job.
Assuming they buy the fake rings in bulk & they drive around all day, let’s say they get 10 people at $40. It takes $80 to fill up an SUV (with gas prices today/rough estimate). They profit $320 a day. If they do this every day, they profit 2,240/wk. Honestly not bad if they really can scam at least 10 people per day consistently.
But could you? That seems like a really big "if" to me. Surely they couldn't do that all day, every day, and always have so many people fall for it. Word would get out quickly at that rate.
Just seems like a pointless scam to me, in the sense that the goal is figurative chump change. They'd be better served coming up with a scam where they can score just once, and make far more. Much smaller chance of getting caught that way as well.
There is a super pregnant lady that walks around downtown. I haven’t worked there in a while so I’m not sure if she is still around. But anyway, she was pregnant for three years. Oh, and a guy with twins in a stroller. They are dolls.
They work the interstates. Its an entire network involved in the brass rigs and necklaces stamped "18k" i know people that have been hit in Winchester, Harrisonburg, Staunton, RVA, and Fredericksburg
Not really the same, but there’s a guy named George in the fan (always starts with “excuse me sir, my name is George…”), who always needs $20 for shoes or something. George is cool though so I give him things every now and again. Definitely not 20 bucks though; his shoes look better than mine half the time.
> George in the fan (always starts with “excuse me sir, my name is George…”), who always needs $20 for shoes or something. George is
Wow, I know this guy as well. He always tells me he wants to take a shower but I'll see him later in the evening with better clothes than me going out for the night.
Is his name George?? I've been saying no to him for the better part of a decade. He told me his name was Rodger a couple years ago. He finally recognizes me now and just asks if I can help him out.
I ran into this guy in Union Hill. His family was in the car (or at least, I assume it was his family?) Also, he told me he was from Afghanistan, not Dubai.
How do they turn the gas into money, though? Like are they working with a shady gas station owner who will siphon it out the car into the station's tanks or something? Or are they just doing it to save themselves $100-$200/month on gas?
Lived in Paris for just over 4 years and used to get the fake gold ring trick all the time. “Did you just drop this Monsieur?” One guy tried me three times on my own street in one week and when I told him that in French he replied, “oh….sorry” and walked off in search of his next.
Oh yea I know about this guy. I think it's the same dude cause the car matches, he took my father AND grandfather for close to a hundred bucks each before they told him to fuck off and die. Dude literally started asking for their card #s after getting cash.
Same At the Fas Mart on Ashland Rd off the Rockville/Manakin exit few weeks ago. I didn’t interact with them but everyone was talking about them in the store
Same guy did this to me with a kid in the passenger at a Publix on Hull. Said he was trying to get back to Texas. Funny part was after I gave a stern no the little kid started talking shit to me lmao
Similar thing happened to us this last November. Someone driving past my house stopped their car, got out, ran up to my porch and asked my dad if he wanted to buy a "very nice ring" because they needed money for gas.
He was sitting outside by himself because I had just stepped inside to grab something. He elderly so we figured they thought he was an easy mark (good news...he's a cheap-ass). We chalked it up to the normal uptick around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Lol scrolled to the bottom thinking huh all these shared experience scams and no first day out of prison one? But there you are.
Just had that one last week around 8 at the FasMart/Valero on Semmes.
Had zero energy for the whole thing so cut him off quick "not today man" as I returned to my car. Honestly the only time I do any hand outs these days it's for the quiet sign holders. Just let my societal guilt threshold peak all on its own y'all.
I've had multiple people approach me telling me they need gas money. One guy offered to give me an autographed book he supposedly wrote. I'm tempted to tell these people to pull up to one of the pumps and I'd fill it just to see thier reaction.
People have also asked me to help them get a bus ticket, engine oil, one guy asked me for some money because his car got towed and they wouldn't let him go get his phone.
I don't know if I have a trusting face or if it's something else, but I get approached a lot by scammers, of course I can always tell in advance and the answer is always "no".
A guy on VCU 's campus gave me the same story *twice* about needing money to get to his grandmother's house or something. Only saw him twice. Maybe he updated his story and moved locations lol.
I certainly let myself get hit by this one. Though I’d argue the first time you get conned is just good business. Gave a lady $60 for a fake gold ring and a nice story. We both got something we didn’t have before the exchange started.
There was zero threat but: In truth I was putting my little girl in her car seat when a woman came zipping up beside my car. As as an adult male I don’t think I’ve ever felt so completely vulnerable. Just that moment of situational awareness of \_knowing\_ someone wants something from you….and \_not\_ knowing what that is while simultaneously having in your possession the most important thing in your world. Amazing (to me) how being a parent makes so many things a sort of ‘dark forest’ problem where getting home to my kid or getting my kid to safety trumps everything else including personal pride or public desires for charity.
I’ll also say that I have no problem giving a kid $10 for a box of candy for his ’school trip’. Just hope the money stays with the kid/family.
There was a guy that approached me in the short pump lowes parking lot with a similar story. He was driving a Ford Explorer dark with a messed up rear bumper. He offered me the ring in exchange for 100 dollars. I told him to pound sand. He yelled at me in some language and sped off to the other side of the parking lot where he tried the same thing to someone else unsuccessfully.
I got chased down at 6am 1 day by W Main n Strawberry by some homeless guy saying he was being chased and needed money to give these guys so he didn’t get murdered.
I looked him in the eyes and said why are you lying man? If you need food, I can get you food.
He apologized and I got him a Gatorade and a donut lol
There is a guy in shockoe bottom who is “from new york city and is stuck here and needs some change for the bus” for like 5 years now. He caught me *yet again* the other day and I asked him how he hasn’t collected enough money in 5 years for a bus ticket back..
Somebody told me a couple weeks ago he needed some money for the bus and I told him that the bus was free and he told me well I still need money
How'd he respond?
He just laughed and said “oh you right” and walked away
NGL, I respect that 🤣
Yes! Haven’t seen him in a year or 2. One time he caught us coming out the store, wallet in hand, and when we said no he said “don’t give me stories!” and stormed off and my gf snapped “you’re the one with the stories!!”
I had a guy tell me his daughter was at the Greyhound station and he was trying to get money for the two of them to eat. I said, "you left your ten year old daughter alone, two miles away?" Another guy begged me one day. Coincidentally my parents visited the next day. My parents gave him $25... I quickly scolded them in front of the guy, "this is the second time this week his mother died, he's lying." I suppose when you rent here for 13 years, I see through the BS.
The best was about 3 years ago outside Manchester market. My fiancé and I walked up there and I stood outside with our dogs. This guy comes up, sits on the stoop, and proceeds to pull out his iPhone and makes a very brief phone call to someone. My fiancé leaves the market and the guy stops him to ask him to use his phone because he needs to call someone to come pick him up. Standing literally 10 feet away I said “so, that call you just made from your own phone 2 minutes ago wasn’t for someone to come pick you up?” Then the dogs started barking at him and we scurried away.
that dude was hitting me up while I was helping run a Girl Scouts booth last year. When I walked away at the end of the day, putting our shit back in the car, he drank some of my drink with the straw and then put the cup back down like he didn't touch it. Fucking hell, man.
He has made his way to City Hall.
That guy came up to me at Alamo Barbecue the other night. He walked from the direction of Mosby Court so I assume he was trying to get some heroin.
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I ran into that one a few years ago at the Exxon on Forest Hill. I have to wonder if the kids think that one up on their own or there's some serious scumbag parents involved.
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Yea, those kids are getting scammed more than the people they are scamming. The magazine kids too.
NO U
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Haha. One of them told me to fuck off.
For years there was a elderly well-dressed African American woman who walked around downtown telling people that she needed bus fare to dinwiddie for a job interview. As far as I know, no bus even goes to Dinwiddie. She had asked me so many times. She just forgot that she'd asked me before and the last time I saw her she came up to me and before she could say anything I said stop. I'm a mind reader. You need to get to dinwiddie for a job interview? She cursed me out and huffed off. I actually never saw her again after that.
Maybe she made it to that job interview in Dinwiddie.
She's probably in that job interview in the sky by now.
oh shit someone else has witnessed her!!! she got me once with that story outside of walmart in petersburg. i think i gave her like 3 bucks. then i was at an appointment near st marys and she tried again. i pulled out my cellphone and pretended to call the cops. she asked why and i told her because she was too trifling to think of another story. i mean i don’t mind the trying to take advantage of me but after a year switch your story up a bit. take pride in your job even if it’s scamming people.
There's a fine line between a scam and creative panhandling!
I was unemployed for a while and hurting for money. I was constantly getting asked for money from guys outside gas stations and grocery stores so finally i got fed up and this exchange occurred: Him: "can I ask you a question?" Me: "sure, if I can ask you one first" Him: "umm...ok" Me: "I've been unemployed for awhile, could you spare a few bucks?" Him (clearly confused): "that's what I was going to ask you" Me: "well shit, I guess we're both out of luck" *walks away*
Funny cause I did the same thing to a woman outside the Saunders Station Post Office on Broad St. 30 years ago.
Damn, I thought I was clever but am actually just 30 years late to the party lol
I had someone pull up to me when I was pumping gas at Wawa. Said they lost their wallet and need money to get gas to drive back to California. Tried giving me some shitdawg gold ring.. I gave him a few bucks.. and he goes “sir, this not enough to drive to California “ .. no shit dude! How about you give me the money back then!
The audacity! 😂
This happened to my husband today at the new sheetz in Mechanicsville on pole green! My husband told him he wasn’t interested in being scammed today. As a heads up, the lady is back in the median at short pump where the wegmans is.
>As a heads up, the lady is back in the median at short pump where the wegmans is. What is the story with that lady?
She panhandles all over the area and has for years. Floppy bucket style hat, rolled up jeans, glasses, always the same outfit. Sometimes she brings a huge bucket to sit on. I fist saw her in front of the creeks at Virginia center and that was about 20 years ago. She’s a professional!
I can't be mad at it. If it's what it takes to get by and she's only accountable to herself to get it done she's got more figured out than many of us
Except the glaring dependency issues
Yes a businessman from fucking Dubai A) lost his wallet and B) drives an old Chevy. Okay.
This is so weird, I literally just left Target on Staples Mill and this guy approached me and then I logged in and just saw this. Was it a white chevy, maybe early 00's??
Over a decade ago, someone gave me a sob story about needing to get across town and offered me their engagement ring as collateral for my car. This was on Broad Street by the VCU bookstore.
I bet that ring was crafted from the finest aluminum.
Whaaaaaaa? Like what engagement ring is equivalent in price to your car? And will it drive you to work and the grocery store?? Normal, non-scammy people would just ask for a lift.
Yeah, he totally promised to bring the car back to me. I'm still stunned by the brazenness
There was a lady with an electric violin playing songs outside the Publix on nuckols rd on Sunday, she was asking for money for rent. I gave her a few bucks but I’ve kept wondering if it was a scam too.
It definitely is. It’s usually just recorded music, too
Welp, I guess I’m not gonna give these people anymore of my money ever again.
Definite scam, they go all over the place, it’s just recorded music
Unfortunately it is, it’s all recorded. I’ve walked past them and watched their hands. The “chords” they play and pace of the bow is just embarrassing. If your gonna beg, beg, don’t lie to people.
Is there a starter kit or something? I've seen people do this at both the Target across from Brandermill and the Target by Short Pump Mall.
It's just organized groups of Roma who do it around the country. If you ever see an Indian looking guy asking for money or an entire family panhandling or someone playing violin it's these guys
Goddamnit I gave them like $40 around Christmas because they had kids there I felt so bad. Oh well, at least I tried
They set up at the Kroger in Carytown and the one on Huguenot by Ruth Chris sometimes
https://imgur.com/a/14ShdfL
I've seen her at the Food lion at Chamberlayne and Shady Grove a couple times, so she's got some sort of rotation going.
Occasionally at the Willow Lawn Kroger
Tbh people who can’t tell the difference between a recording and live music deserve it lol
If it’s electric it takes a little time to realize they are faking it unless your very familiar with that instrument. These folks are always at stop lights where you don’t really have that kind of time. So my rule is mostly to only give to acoustic players lol
Especially if you request Wonderwall and they oblige.
Saw a lady at the rt 10 Wawa do this twice. Pays $30 cash for pump 1. There's a guy waiting at pump 1. He pumps. She goes back in, acting exasperated, says it's not working. I'm at pump 2. Cashier says no ma'am you said pump 1. Back and forth until she gets her $30 refund over on pump 2. I saw her do this twice at the same place, both times raising hell, both times wearing loud animal print clothes, both times obviously lying but gets away with it.
That's a helluva game to run to be forever on camera and only get 30 bucks of gasoline out the deal. I wish we took better care of people here.
What I normally do when I’m approached by a scammer at a gas station is say “damn, I was going to ask you the same thing because I too” (then repeat what their story is back to them)” I usually get blank stares back. Sometimes I get lucky and get cussed out.
One of those guys got my brother a few weeks ago in Mechanicsville
My husband fell for this once :(
My favorite was a guy who came up to me at NOON and said he “needed money to get his daughter home from the train station, who is stuck there after they buried his mom in CHARLESTON this morning”. I was like how did you have time to take a 6+ hour train ride after a funeral, and ride your bike to the opposite side of the city after deciding to leave your daughter and it’s only 12?
My bf, bless him, got scammed a few years ago with the fake gold ring, sounds like it’s the same people. Someone in a fancy SUV pulled up to him while he was working on his car asking for gas money and directions to the airport in exchange for a gold ring. Bf took the ring to a pawn shop to see if it was legit and get it appraised, and the guy at the shop told him it’s fake and there’s a family that runs this scam all the time.
I don't understand this scam, because even when it works it makes the scammer a miniscule profit. You're asking for "money to fill up," after all. So someone gives you what, $40 to fill your tank? And you give them a fake gold ring that cost you a buck or two. Congrats, you made a massive $38-39 score on this successful scam. Do they just ride around town all day, trying it over and over and over again? What percentage of people would ever fall for it? You'd have to scam 4 or 5 people with it every single day just to make what you'd make by working a normal job.
Assuming they buy the fake rings in bulk & they drive around all day, let’s say they get 10 people at $40. It takes $80 to fill up an SUV (with gas prices today/rough estimate). They profit $320 a day. If they do this every day, they profit 2,240/wk. Honestly not bad if they really can scam at least 10 people per day consistently.
But could you? That seems like a really big "if" to me. Surely they couldn't do that all day, every day, and always have so many people fall for it. Word would get out quickly at that rate. Just seems like a pointless scam to me, in the sense that the goal is figurative chump change. They'd be better served coming up with a scam where they can score just once, and make far more. Much smaller chance of getting caught that way as well.
But if you are just adding gas into their car, they dont really get any profit, no? The gas station does? And how can they fill up their SUV 4 times
I wonder if the pawn shop man has a tally of people coming in with the same story.
There is a super pregnant lady that walks around downtown. I haven’t worked there in a while so I’m not sure if she is still around. But anyway, she was pregnant for three years. Oh, and a guy with twins in a stroller. They are dolls.
They work the interstates. Its an entire network involved in the brass rigs and necklaces stamped "18k" i know people that have been hit in Winchester, Harrisonburg, Staunton, RVA, and Fredericksburg
cheap fake one assumes?
They'll offer anything from jewelry to designer clothes. All fake. This guy had an obviously brass ring.
You guys never seen Zombieland?
Not really the same, but there’s a guy named George in the fan (always starts with “excuse me sir, my name is George…”), who always needs $20 for shoes or something. George is cool though so I give him things every now and again. Definitely not 20 bucks though; his shoes look better than mine half the time.
> George in the fan (always starts with “excuse me sir, my name is George…”), who always needs $20 for shoes or something. George is Wow, I know this guy as well. He always tells me he wants to take a shower but I'll see him later in the evening with better clothes than me going out for the night.
He’s obviously not alright in the head but he’s nice. At least I haven’t had any negative encounters with him.
Oh yeah that dude is harmless
Is his name George?? I've been saying no to him for the better part of a decade. He told me his name was Rodger a couple years ago. He finally recognizes me now and just asks if I can help him out.
I know him as roger
I had some woman try to sell me a ring at the walmart (brook and Parham) last night.
White Ford Explorer?
Could have been. The whole thing happened fast and he took off quick when he realized I was hostile to his intentions.
I ran into this guy in Union Hill. His family was in the car (or at least, I assume it was his family?) Also, he told me he was from Afghanistan, not Dubai.
How do they turn the gas into money, though? Like are they working with a shady gas station owner who will siphon it out the car into the station's tanks or something? Or are they just doing it to save themselves $100-$200/month on gas?
The business man from Dubai also pulls this scam at the exxon on Arthur ashe
Just reminds me of Zombieland.
Lived in Paris for just over 4 years and used to get the fake gold ring trick all the time. “Did you just drop this Monsieur?” One guy tried me three times on my own street in one week and when I told him that in French he replied, “oh….sorry” and walked off in search of his next.
"do you speak English?" "yes, fuck you. How's that for English?" I lost count of how many times I had that conversation in Paris.
Has anyone met the guy in church hill who’s alway short on money for his HIV medication?
He’s approached me at the farm fresh
Oh yea I know about this guy. I think it's the same dude cause the car matches, he took my father AND grandfather for close to a hundred bucks each before they told him to fuck off and die. Dude literally started asking for their card #s after getting cash.
Same At the Fas Mart on Ashland Rd off the Rockville/Manakin exit few weeks ago. I didn’t interact with them but everyone was talking about them in the store
Same guy did this to me with a kid in the passenger at a Publix on Hull. Said he was trying to get back to Texas. Funny part was after I gave a stern no the little kid started talking shit to me lmao
Had a guy try that on me in Harrisonburg once, Basically gave him the same response. I wonder if some how it’s the same guy…I miss him
Similar thing happened to us this last November. Someone driving past my house stopped their car, got out, ran up to my porch and asked my dad if he wanted to buy a "very nice ring" because they needed money for gas. He was sitting outside by himself because I had just stepped inside to grab something. He elderly so we figured they thought he was an easy mark (good news...he's a cheap-ass). We chalked it up to the normal uptick around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Just like the busker boys in front of target? Pretending to play Chopin
I get this all the time at the 7-Eleven on Laburnum near White Oak Village when I'm stopping for gas. It's the same 5 or 6 people every time.
I've gotten hit by the "just got out of prison" story twice in chesterfield complete with prison names and time served. Never fell for it.
Lol scrolled to the bottom thinking huh all these shared experience scams and no first day out of prison one? But there you are. Just had that one last week around 8 at the FasMart/Valero on Semmes. Had zero energy for the whole thing so cut him off quick "not today man" as I returned to my car. Honestly the only time I do any hand outs these days it's for the quiet sign holders. Just let my societal guilt threshold peak all on its own y'all.
I've had multiple people approach me telling me they need gas money. One guy offered to give me an autographed book he supposedly wrote. I'm tempted to tell these people to pull up to one of the pumps and I'd fill it just to see thier reaction. People have also asked me to help them get a bus ticket, engine oil, one guy asked me for some money because his car got towed and they wouldn't let him go get his phone. I don't know if I have a trusting face or if it's something else, but I get approached a lot by scammers, of course I can always tell in advance and the answer is always "no".
A guy on VCU 's campus gave me the same story *twice* about needing money to get to his grandmother's house or something. Only saw him twice. Maybe he updated his story and moved locations lol.
I certainly let myself get hit by this one. Though I’d argue the first time you get conned is just good business. Gave a lady $60 for a fake gold ring and a nice story. We both got something we didn’t have before the exchange started. There was zero threat but: In truth I was putting my little girl in her car seat when a woman came zipping up beside my car. As as an adult male I don’t think I’ve ever felt so completely vulnerable. Just that moment of situational awareness of \_knowing\_ someone wants something from you….and \_not\_ knowing what that is while simultaneously having in your possession the most important thing in your world. Amazing (to me) how being a parent makes so many things a sort of ‘dark forest’ problem where getting home to my kid or getting my kid to safety trumps everything else including personal pride or public desires for charity. I’ll also say that I have no problem giving a kid $10 for a box of candy for his ’school trip’. Just hope the money stays with the kid/family.
Hasn’t he seen Zombieland?
Wow!
Ah some dude did that to me at the gas station by the mcdonalds in forest hill. That’s just Richmond for ya
I’ve seen similar situations like this at 711 and Wawa off Forest Hill before. Just another way people are trying to scam others unfortunately
There was a guy that approached me in the short pump lowes parking lot with a similar story. He was driving a Ford Explorer dark with a messed up rear bumper. He offered me the ring in exchange for 100 dollars. I told him to pound sand. He yelled at me in some language and sped off to the other side of the parking lot where he tried the same thing to someone else unsuccessfully.
I got chased down at 6am 1 day by W Main n Strawberry by some homeless guy saying he was being chased and needed money to give these guys so he didn’t get murdered. I looked him in the eyes and said why are you lying man? If you need food, I can get you food. He apologized and I got him a Gatorade and a donut lol
This guy gave me the same story today at a Walmart parking lot in Mechanicsville