So I am at the local Shell station today, throwing down some snaps on the petrol and putting a light splash in my tank, when a scrawny, bearded man approached asking for money saying that his small pickup was just about out of gas and him and his girlfriend needed to get to downtown because of an emergency. I was a little annoyed. It could be because of the gas prices, or that I was late for school, or that I didn’t have time to pick up coffee, or that people were driving like idiots, or that people didn’t feel the need to “pull through” forcing me to back up to fill up, but in any case I was a little suspicious and perturbed. Of course, it could be the fact that he didn’t even have a girlfriend in his truck to begin with and that I had just seen him in the store buying cigarettes.
I tried to be nice saying, sorry I was late for school and didn’t have time to help him, but it is a completely stupid excuse since all I had to do was reach in my pocket and it would have cost me no additional time whatsoever, but I was in a bad mood already, and this scam has certainly been played out before. I hate gas groupies who stand around making some excuse saying they have no way to reach their destination, usually traveling with some non existent family and then once you give them the money they drive off to go buy their Mad Dog or smack. I didn’t let myself fall victim this time though, even though after the initial request by the man he responded with a thought provoking, “Dude, come on.”
No dude, you come on. Don’t give me that, you were just buying smokes, telling a sob story of how you can’t get into town with a girlfriend that you don’t even have, in a truck that’s not even pulled up to the pump, with a beard that looks like it needs to be ran through with one of those tiny Nix combs. You come on! Oh, and he was one of those close talkers too, you know the ones that just get right up inside your bubble for some reason as if they want to influence you, not only with their words, but their aura as well.
Sure enough, the man didn’t even wait for another victim, but jumped into his small blue mid-eighties Toyota pickup and went across the street to the AMPM to scope out the sitch there. I don’t mean to sound like an ass and I do give to people in need, but real people in need. Not some scrawny, bearded man wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt all up in my biznezz. Its sad because it makes people hesitant to give to those who truly are less fortunate, for now we are always suspicious, so nowadays more money goes to those scammers who wander the parking lots of BP and Walmart rather than to any real needy person.
Before I get e-mails about my need to go to sensitivity training just let me say I do feel a little guilty, but sometimes a vibe is just too negative for me in good conscience to decide to dish out money to total strangers all the time. Especially, like when someone is waiting at the end of a Starbuck's drive thru trying to sell you VCR, stating he needs food for his kids, while his neck and knuckles glitter in the sunlight with bling he could easily pawn. True story by the way; and really a VCR? Its all DVD now, the only VHS tape I have left is The Goonies and its on TBS all the time anyway so I don't really feel the strong urge to go out and buy a VCR to play the movie. You might as well be trying to sell me a Beta Max.
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