Ok. I'm on a soapbox today. Like a freight train from hell. Except in a nice way.
Those of you who know me know that my biggest pet peeve is people who live off the generosity of others when they don't need it*. This especially includes able bodied people who have never worked a day in their lives out of laziness.
My anger over this has recently come to a giant, pulsating head.
I would say that about 50% of the time when I stop to get gas I am approached by individuals who tell me they are going somewhere (this morning it was a funeral in Houston...the lady was good...she even had tears in her eyes) but have run out of gas.
Number one, if I need to go somewhere but know I don't have the cash to get there, I don't go.
Number two, if the man you are with can sit in that car and smoke cigarettes, that tells me you aren't really all the way out of money. I'm sure he can put his cig money toward gas and bum a smoke once he gets to the funeral.
Number three, what makes you think that the girl pulling up the 13-year-old-dented-nearly-paintless Geo Prism has money to give you?
Number four, people who approach me like this give me panic attacks. It scares me to death. I'm honestly going to start carrying pepper spray.
Anyway, I told the lady I would be happy to buy her some gas. I told her I would go inside and put $5 worth on her pump.
She started to sputter.
Uh...ma'am....uh....can't you just give me the cash?
Nope.
I can't.
Because you're a worthless liar.
How dare you play on my sympathies?! I am beyond indignant.
Shame on you.
*Just as a disclaimer, I'm all for helping people who actually need assistance. I'm not completely heartless. Most of the time.
2 comments:
Erin, congrats on out-smarting the scumbags. I can't stand that crap. I once visited the local pharmecy with my sister in law and she was asked by one if they had gas money so she could take her sick baby to the hospital (said sick baby was happily sucking down a bottle in the backseat!) and then she asked me, minutes later, for gas money to visit her ailing mother in the hospital.
Umm... could you at least do yourself a favor and get your story straight?!?! OR are we supposed to believe that your baby and mother are in the hospital at the same time?
Oh, and, have you never heard of 911? There are ways to get to the hospital in an emergency without transportation...
Sorry, I get a bit heated about it, myself.
We have a lady who comes into Basic Foods who is, as far as I can tell, beyond mental. She always has a sob story that she tells several times, and always cries as the same part every time she tells it--(each story has a different "cry cue"). The first time she came in she wanted bus fare to get away because she was 4 months pregnant and her dad just threatened to kill her and her sister. But she couldn't call the police, she just wanted to use the phone and get bus money. We gave her a dollar and told her that was all we could do. Then we watched her walk the OPPOSITE direction of the bus stop...Yesterday she wanted bus money so she could get to the hospital where her sister was about to have a C-section. She gives me the willies big time.
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