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I'm sure this has happened to most folks. Yesterday at a QT I saw a guy walking to each person getting gas I assumed he was asking for money?

He finally made his way towards me (I was open carrying) he got about 8-10 feet away his eyes got a little bigger and he made a quick turn to the other direction and did not bother me. OC is worth it's weight in gold! At least in this situation anyway.

Bonus!

I had a woman in a BMW SUV ask me for money for gas. Really, I don't carry cash and was suspicious.

Common practice, usually have a sad story to go with it trying to get home to dying mother, kids sick needing to get to doctor, etc.. Guy at a 7-11 in Arlington approached me, told him I had no cash, but offered to buy him $10.00 worth of gas. He said he would rather have the cash. So I don't bother with them anymore.

I had this happen in San Ysidro, the city right on the border with Tijuana. The fellow came up to me, made his pitch, I looked at him, and said, "do
I look like Father Joe?" Father Joe is a very prominent priest in San Diego who established Father Joe's Villages, a charity of considerable size and influence. He is on TV there constantly pitching his good works. The fellow laughed and walked away.

Suffice it to say, I do not resemble Father Joe. I've been mistaken for Wilford Brimley, but never a priest.

It's against the law in California for a beggar to carry a gun, so I felt safe enough.

I've had it happen.

In this instance, the guy was well dressed, clean, driving a late model vehicle I saw as this guy park, exit his vehicle and promptly approached me.

I was filling up my truck. A captive audience for begging or worse...

When he got within 20 or so feet of me, I took my hands off the pump, did the NO CLOSER hand up gesture and pushed back my vest. He knew I had a gun, yet undeterred, was extra courteous while he begged at distance.

I never said a word. He quickly approached another person.

I went inside and reported his behavior to the store manager, who was instantly boiling mad and immediately confronted the beggar while I got in my truck to leave.

I got the impression the manager had this guy pester others in the recent past and he wasn't going to tolerate it.

JALLEN wrote: It's against the law in California for a beggar to carry a gun, so I felt safe enough.

Thank you for the chuckle this morning. :-)

I have had this happen to me in south FW. Down here in Houston way, I saw a young adult park his car at a gas station, walk over to the median, picked up a scrap sign and started panhandling. My guess is that if you don't mind begging, in 30 or so minutes you can probably have enough to buy a fair amount of fuel and go on with your day. No pride means more cash for other things.

Abraham wrote:I've had it happen.

In this instance, the guy was well dressed, clean, driving a late model vehicle I saw as this guy park, exit his vehicle and promptly approached me.

I was filling up my truck. A captive audience for begging or worse...

When he got within 20 or so feet of me, I took my hands off the pump, did the NO CLOSER hand up gesture and pushed back my vest. He knew I had a gun, yet undeterred, was extra courteous while he begged at distance.

I never said a word. He quickly approached another person.

I went inside and reported his behavior to the store manager, who was instantly boiling mad and immediately confronted the beggar while I got in my truck to leave.

I got the impression the manager had this guy pester others in the recent past and he wasn't going to tolerate it.

I too have reported instances to store management and most of them definitely don't want that happening on their property, I reported it to one store manager and his response was, well we tried to run those guys off but they just keep coming back so I don't bother them anymore. I told him he would be losing my business and that eventually the only people on his lot would be beggars and those who don't know about the beggars, and that they would only be one time customers.

Why cant they just put up a circle slash beggar sign and get them all on a class B criminal trespass?

I've never been approached in Texas but in Commiefornia it happened a lot. I would never give money but if they said they were hungry I'd offer to feed them. It's nice to have a captive audience while offering them the plan of salvation!

I volunteer with a homeless charity. I used to feel guilty sometimes when asked for money, but I have learned that giving cash does more harm than good. If someone is there with their vehicle, I will pump them some gas. They may think they are taking advantage of me, but that's only true if I think it.

However, I am usually approached by someone with no vehicle, and I tell them to [abbreviated profanity deleted].

Interestingly this happened to me in California too. At LAX where I was filling up my rental car to return it. Every week the same guy came up to me begging for gas. He actually had a gas can and I filled it for him. I assume he sold it or huffed it or whatever. Finally after a couple times I told him "I see you here every week begging for gas, what do you do with it?" He just stared...

Has happened several times to me. The ones I hate most are people selling things out of their trunk.

Richbirdhunter wrote:I've never been approached in Texas but in Commiefornia it happened a lot. I would never give money but if they said they were hungry I'd offer to feed them. It's nice to have a captive audience while offering them the plan of salvation!

A few years ago my wife bought McDonalds for a guy (against my wishes) that was on the street corner with a sign that read "Hungry please help" After she gave it to him I got her to stop across the street and watch... after a few minutes he tossed it in the trash can there in the medium. Needless to say she doesn't do that anymore.