Gas station begging? Is this a new trend?

I’ve run into it before. Not since the $4 gas days though.

It’s not new. I’m fortunate to live in a nice neighborhood, so I encounter this very infrequently. But, I have had it happen. I’ve even been walking nearby a pharmacy or post office and been asked for money to get a prescription or to mail an emergency package.

I offer direct help. I say, “Certainly, just pull your car up to the pump and I’ll put a few dollars of gasoline in it,” or “Let’s go to the pharmacy counter and get your medicine,” or “I’ll stand in line with you and help pay for your postage.” Because there’s never a car, prescription, or package – just a panhandling ploy – the person always declines.

It has never happened to me but that would make me very nervous.
That is the same approach of many car jackers. They lure you out and away from your vehicle car while they, or an accomplice grab yours or rifle through your possessions.

If that happens again stop what you are doing and get their license plate number and description. Take a picture with your phone if you can do it safely.

Happened a few times over the years. Happened going into the train station – “I need five dollars to take a train to the Doctor.” I gave her five dollars.

Next day, same scenario, I told her to find a doctor she could walk to.

It happened to me but I was at a drug store which I thought was weird. A middle aged couple drove up as I was getting out of my car. I had just gotten on the sidewalk. The woman rolled down her window and said “can I ask you something?” I stayed on the sidewalk and said yes. She looked put out that I didn’t come up to the window. She said her mom was sick and they needed gas to get to her. Could I give them gas money?
I said that I had no money on me, which was true.
I felt a little uneasy that they might’ve pulled me in the car if I had gotten close.
This place didn’t have gas pumps, so I found it very odd.

It’s been going on for at least 40 years in the various places I’ve been throughout the US.

@chyna You did the right thing. I would never get close to their car door.
Also you didn’t give them anything. Great.

I have helped people on the side of the road. I have picked up people walking with a gas can. But I never give money to a stranger who walks up to my personal space and asks.

It’s not yet happened to me, but I usually go to a small gas station that is full service only, or I go near my house, in the middle of nowhere where they wouldn’t allow begging anyway.

I say no to questions like that. Usually the one I’ve experienced has been that they’re looking for money for a bus. I say no.

Once I was in the government car (clearly marked) in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. I was with my female coworker. A man came up to us and gave us a story about his car breaking down and he needed money to get home. I told him to go to the police department and ask if he could use their phone to call someone for help. My guess is that he never went to the police department.

During the baseball season, Paul and I make frequent trips to Baltimore (we’ve had Orioles season tickets for many years). On the route out of the city, the right-hand side of the street is lined with gasoline stations. The prices are very good, so we often stop before we leave.

For ages, people would ask us for money while we were stopped. Recently, a huge casino opened across the street. Now, people say that they lost all their money gambling, and would we please give them bus or subway fare, or maybe pay for some gasoline, so that they can get home! It’s all very creative, but nonetheless sad. I never get angry at these people; I’m grateful to be in a better place.

Beggars “work” public facilities and filling stations and are notorious for everything from ” let me pump your gas for you” through scrubbing your windows. There are 4 or 5 regulars working my station on various shifts, but there are also folks “passing thru” who station themselves near the cashiers window to ambush those paying in cash. The pitch varies and some of them aresurprisingly creative. Many of the regulars have been around long enough to recognize those of us who fill up regularly, and those who make the mistake of occasional generosity are mobbed with attention.

Raise your hand if you remember NYC’s squeegee guys.

Talk about something that started as a good thing and ended so badly… At first, some men really did clean windshields. They were trying to do some real work for money, rather than just beg for handouts. Before long, there were squeegee guys on every corner, and many of them were extremely aggressive and scary. They also had filthy rags and bottles of plain water, not glass cleaner, so a windshield would actually get dirtier.

We all learned to turn-on our wipers when a squeegee guy approached. Thank goodness, I haven’t seen any of those men in quite a few years.

Bloomberg ended the corner squeegee guys in NYC. I’m glad he did.

I wouldn’t go to a gas station that allowed beggars to linger and harass. I’d find another retailer.

I would probably say something like “Sorry, I just maxed my debit card out!”, pump the gas, lock the car, and go in to report the panhandling to the attendant.

My Dad used to talk about squeegee guys – and not favorably. He said if you didn’t pay they would spit on your windshield and they were on almost every corner. It was out of control.

Nope. I’ve noticed it since I was able to drive.

I had the same guy give me the same story at the same gas station on different days about twenty years ago.

“Sorry, I hate to bother you, but I have my mother in the car over there [vague wave of hand towards no particular car] and we have to get to her doctor appointment. Can you spare$5.00?”

The first time I said sorry, no, I don’t carry cash.

The second time I loudly said in front of several other customers, “You gave me the same fake story yesterday!’

It’s happened to me a few times. Both times it was in a sketchy part of town and I was already on guard. I know some has stations are meet up places for drug deals, ugh, and I’m not going to piss off someone who might be late on his fix.

The last time it happened it was in Georgia somewhere I think? Might have been Alabama. As soon as we exited I knew we were in the ghetto. Yes, it is a semi-racist remark, in that I mean it was a little run down, mostly black people, and there were typical fast foods found in lower income areas. Mind you we are driving a very nice truck and hauling a Porsche behind it. A guy started talking to my husband as he pumped the gas. Nice enough guy, I think he more likely was mentally ill than a drug addict. He asked my husband about the Porsche and asked if he could have a couple of bucks. We gave him some money.

Originally we were planning to go to McD’s next to that gas station, but we got back in the highway to eat in another town. I might not have bothered if we didn’t have the Porsche. I feel like a target.

Which is why I drive a Honda.

I’d be leery of any direct begging like that as I agree with @LuckyGuy it could be part of a set up or more involved scam.

What ruined it for me was when I was fresh out of college hardly any money to my name there was a young black kid who was hitch hiking so I gave him a ride. Once he got in he said could I give him some money for food and like others here have suggested they would do, I offered to buy him a lunch at McDonalds. I gave him $5.00, he told me to wait for him in the car for him and after 10 minutes of waiting I realized I had been had as he probably just ran out the other side door. I know I was out the $5.00 either way but it was the scam deception that irritated me the most.

By giving money you are perpetuating the scam. This practice would stop if nobody gave money and instead, reported them.

People have done this for a while.
You are pumping gas, probably putting it on a credit card. If someone asks for a couple gallons, you are more likely to give them $5 in gas than a $5 bill.
Yes, I’ve seen this more than once.

We have an Aldi grocery store that requires a quarter to be inserted into a lock to get a shopping cart. They do that so you return your own cart to get your quarter back.

A while back there was one guy who would walk around and offer to take back your cart for you, if he could keep the quarter. I was totally cool with that, especially since I had a little one with me, and had no desire to lug him back up to the store just to return a cart.

^^Makes sense.

@Seek – I’m OK with that, since he’s providing a service.

(note – last time I was in Aldi I needed a cart and didn’t have a quarter -only dollars in my billfold. What a pain in the rear…

I keep one quarter behind my driver’s license. It’s the Aldi Quarter.

I have no idea & don’t want to fuel the rumours.

Those carts requiring the quarter began appearing in the supermarkets out here several years ago, then suddenly they vanished. And the disappearance was so abrupt and universal that I remember thinking that the change must have been mandated legally. I wonder about that.

The only notable thing to happen to me at the gas station was quite recent. A woman was pumping her gas the same time as me. We made eye contact and she sang; “Do you want to build a snowman?” Without missing a beat I sang back; “Come on let’s go and play.” We finished the verse as a duet and I had my vibrations raised to the sky. She really made my day. I did have a man ask me for money for a bus ticket at an Arby’s once. I was a bitch and didn’t give him any. My friends all laughed. The next day we heard a homeless man had been killed under the vai dock near the Arby’s. My friends laughed more and said that I killed a homeless man. I didn’t laugh and wonder to this day if it was the same man. I could have fed him. I regret my behavior.

^^^ I’m touched by your compassion. Your friends should be deeply ashamed that they laughed at the homeless person, and then joked and laughed more about some wretched man’s death.