Today, in the parking lot of a grocery store, I was approached by a man who said he and his wife needed money. He had lost his wallet while driving from Effingham, IL, headed toward Branson, MO. He asked for $25 gas money.
His pitch seemed honest and yet smooth. He was dressed in crisp jeans and a plaid shirt, and claimed to be a carpenter back in southern MO. I was tempted to challenge him with some hardcore carpentry questions but that seemed to relish the power dynamic in the situation. And, despite working in a hardware store for several summers and helping many carpentry projects, I don't have any hardcore carpentry quizzes at hand.
What to do? A scam? He asked for my address so that he could repay me. So he would have $25, my name and address, and (possibly) my license plate info. He also gave me his address.
Sounds like a fun psych experiment to me (and a nice theme-of-the-week for CC dot com). But essentially, I tend to trust people until they give me reason not to.
I gave him the money. We'll see what happens..... Stay tuned.
What what you have done?
6 comments:
his wife doesn't have a wallet?
Good question.... He may have covered that but I don't remember.
I did ask him to recount the story of his destination and exactly where his wallet is....
Only later I realized a good tactic might have been to ask for his wife's name and their phone number. And then, right there, ask if i can call the house and see what the answering machine message says. Clearly it should be "hi this is so-and-so, we aren't in..."
This same thing happened to me in the parking lot of the Missouri Botanical Garden. I gave the fellow $10 and my address and never heard back.
Found out later, this same guy had been doing the scam repeatedly at Forest Park Community College.
I'm not sorry I gave him the money. I like to believe the best in people. I did feel a bit like a chump though.
Well, did you give him your address, too? I would have given him $5, no address, I don't want people hunting me down. I figure if they find out I have $25 to spare, they probably think I might be worth robbing later. But I tend to be paranoid. And let's face it, as a woman, a strange man comes up and asks me for money, I am running the opposite direction. But that's my personality. You are much more adventurous than I.
By the way, I look forward to a carpentry quiz later on. I am sure that you will come up with one just in case this scenario occurs again!
What I would have done (had i $25 to spare) was offer to go to the gas station with him and fill the tank for him.
I'm with Chelle on this one; paranoia usually wins out on things like this with me.
Oh, and the same thing happened to me in the parking lot of Uncle Bill's on Hampton one night. The guy I was dating at the time gave him $20, gave him a business card, and never heard back.
Reminds me, I was hit up for cash by a woman who claimed to have been abused at a time when I had just quit being a domestic violence prosecutor. I rattled off some names and numbers and locations for her to get help and she cussed me out.
But that doesn't mean you necessarily did the wrong thing. But probably. heh.
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