Weird Experience buying a tool box

[Blacknwhitepit]

Picked up a great big roll around cart (I don't know what brand yet). But it is very stout. It had a KR295 Snap on Prybar/screwdriver locking container on it (in good condition too).

Inside the box were numerous OTC Hub sockets (HUGE ONES) and huge seal drivers. The guy at the pawn shop said the owner worked on Big rigs... And I believed him.. These are so big, I doubt I will ever use them, but.... You never know....


I got all this stuff for $150 out the door. It was so heavy I needed the help of 3 other guys who worked in the pawn shop to get it in the truck!!!!


HERE IS WHERE THE WIERDNESS HAPPENS.

It was about 10:45 in the morning when it happened.

We go to load the box in the back of my truck and out of nowhere this woman appears. She looked around 19 and was dressed with a low cut mini skirt, tight clothes and bleach blonde hair. She was attractive, but something wasn't right... She look like the 'typical ho'....

The 3 guys and I really looked at her like "what is going on here"... she looked like a stereotypical prostitute.. High heels, mini, tight clothes... everything..

Anyway, she asks what I paid for the box and I told her $150.00... She said "you got a good deal"....

The guys didn't know what to make of this and neither did I. They moved back inside the pawn shop....

I continued to tie down the box, when she asked "do you have a light?" I said, "No, I don't have a lighter".... She bummed a light from a guy in a car next to me... I wondered if that was a pimp....hmmmmm...

Anyway. After I got the toolbox loaded, I jumped down from the bed and she approached me saying she was looking for a job. I almost thought about referring her to the ********** that was about 400 meters to the south... then I though...hmmmm

It was then when I looked at her face and what appeared to me to be meth sores covered in makeup.... I felt terrible...

I wished her luck finding a job, and then got in my truck, started it and backed up.

She was standing in front of my truck and started waving her arms frantically.

I stopped and lowered my passenger window about 3 inches and she came up and asked If I had any money I could give her, A dollar or something...

Right then I thought about all the things I could do or say..

I thought about asking her about the meth, or about if she wanted help to change her life...

I gave her a dollar bill and wished her luck...

So sad... She really was an attractive girl who was in over her head.... I realized that when you are begging for money on the streets and had her looks, then you have already been fired from the strip clubs and streetwalking is all you have left...

Since I have a daughter, I thought how sad a scene this was.....

As I pulled out, the manager of the pawn shop (an older woman) was approaching the scene......

-BWP

 

[Deafautotech]

wow... that is good deal on tools/toolbox but sorry about that lady... not everybody has good life... sometime one choice or decide that can lead good way or BAD way...

 

[Boiler]

Its very sad. It can take very little meth use to become completely gripped by it, especially if it is pure meth. Definitely nothing to try.

These people start by wanting to party and have a good time, and a short time after they don't know, and don't care, what happened to their lives. A few stupid decisions, succumbing to peer pressure, whatever, and its over.

I've succumbed to peer pressure and have done things that are stupid. Fortunately this wasn't one of them.

 

[jjjrmx5]

Anyway, she asks what I paid for the box and I told her $150.00... She said "you got a good deal"....

The guys didn't know what to make of this and neither did I. They moved back inside the pawn shop....

Until I read further, my first guess was she was the one that pawned either her bf's/hubby/ex-hubby or father's tools and wanted to buy them back.

Once the asking for money( aka busking for cash) begins, the easiest route out is to say sorry, I just spent the last of my cash on the toolbox in the back.

I pop in and out of city-wide pawn shops all the time looking for tool deals and that situation/scenario is not overly uncommon. Most are scrambling in to pay for what they have pawned, but in reality, the act of pawning alone means a bigger financial hurdle exists. It's never a happy and elated type of atmosphere in any pawn shop or pawn shop parking lot I've been in.
Except Las Vegas.
Go figgure.

 

[Danglerb]

Maybe 10% of the people that ask for money are amateurs, most do it for a living. Maybe a third of the time I give them some money, depends on what they look like and if I have any money smaller than a $20.

Gas stations I use are close to the freeway, and those are convenient for people to beg at, grab a snack, hop in the car and do it again a few exits away. Couple weeks ago a gal in her late twenties made the rounds of everybody at one of the stations asking for $1 and I turned her down. Felt pretty bad when I was driving away and saw her pushing an old pickup towards the gas station. It must really **** to be out of money, out of gas, and no option except to beg for a few dollars.

 

[econoaddict]

Awesome score on the tools/box.

As for the meth head you ran into.......
Why do people give them cash? It just blows my mind, "Oh, I feel sorry for them." so you give them money so they can get more drugs and continue to sink deeper.
Wanna help em? give them a ride to rehab.
For 4 years I have driven the same route to/from work during the 4 years I have seen the same bums/druggies on the same corners and parking lots begging money. Sit back one day and watch to see how much people give them, absolutely mind boggling.
They can easily pull $100-$200+ a day out there, our local news did a piece on this not to long ago with interviews from a few local beggars. Keep in mind.....tax free....on top of getting fed at shelters and churches and getting food stamps plus some also get disability and what ever else they can.
And it gets burned up on drugs and drink...
Sorry for the rant but this subject gets me riled up.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Sad story.

Now let's see pics of that cart and what was inside!

 

[Blacknwhitepit]

Awesome score on the tools/box.

As for the meth head you ran into.......
Why do people give them cash? It just blows my mind, "Oh, I feel sorry for them." so you give them money so they can get more drugs and continue to sink deeper.
Wanna help em? give them a ride to rehab.
For 4 years I have driven the same route to/from work during the 4 years I have seen the same bums/druggies on the same corners and parking lots begging money. Sit back one day and watch to see how much people give them, absolutely mind boggling.
They can easily pull $100-$200+ a day out there, our local news did a piece on this not to long ago with interviews from a few local beggars. Keep in mind.....tax free....on top of getting fed at shelters and churches and getting food stamps plus some also get disability and what ever else they can.
And it gets burned up on drugs and drink...
Sorry for the rant but this subject gets me riled up.

Normally, I feel just like you... I have driven past these bums on roads and in subways.....

I guess they got one that hit the heart strings... A young lady.... Way too young IMHO to be doing something like this....

I agree with everything you have said..

She got a buck from me.... I did know better.. I know what that dollar is going to.....

Sad story.

Now let's see pics of that cart and what was inside!

Well said bro...

I will post PICs tomorrow ... It is a HEAVY DUTY It is a mobile work center, and American made, but I need to knock some of the paint off it to see what it is, I want to put my Grinder, Anvil and vise on it....

MTF

-BWP

 

[CLee0507]

Awesome score on the tools/box.

As for the meth head you ran into.......
Why do people give them cash? It just blows my mind, "Oh, I feel sorry for them." so you give them money so they can get more drugs and continue to sink deeper.
Wanna help em? give them a ride to rehab.
For 4 years I have driven the same route to/from work during the 4 years I have seen the same bums/druggies on the same corners and parking lots begging money. Sit back one day and watch to see how much people give them, absolutely mind boggling.
They can easily pull $100-$200+ a day out there, our local news did a piece on this not to long ago with interviews from a few local beggars. Keep in mind.....tax free....on top of getting fed at shelters and churches and getting food stamps plus some also get disability and what ever else they can.
And it gets burned up on drugs and drink...
Sorry for the rant but this subject gets me riled up.

I drive truck locally and see the same thing everyday as well, same people out there day after day. As a matter of fact they actually have pan handler licenses so they can do it legally, and it always bugs me when people stop, especially when it holds up traffic, to give them money. I bet they make pretty good money doing that ****.
Once I was with my dad and a bum approached us and asked for money for a meal and my dad gave him some freebie coupons for mcdonalds and the guy refused.
While coming home on leave one time I was in a bus station and a guy come up to bum money, said he was hungry so I offered to buy him a hotdog and soda and he also refused. That's what really pisses me off is that "most" of these type of people are really just lying and trying to get drugs or booze.

 

[TheGrooveking]

I once was on a business trip in Orlando, Florida and while filling up the rental car, which I ignorantly left unlocked, but didn't think it was a big deal since I didn't leave the pump a 60+ old woman walked between the pumps, opens the passenger door, gets in my car and locks the door! WTF?

I run around to the drivers side, open the door and said what are doing? Oh, I need a ride a few blocks away. She looked like she had money, so I told her get out of the car and when I'm done I'lll drive you a few blocks (stupid I know). When we left she pointed to a street which led behind the airport, it was residential, so I drove down it to a park where she told me to pull in, at this time I could see she was getting nervous, so I pulled over and told her to get out. She got out and acted all pissed off, I tore out of there and thought to myself how stupid I was. Even though she didn't have a purse, she was wearing pretty tight jeans (actually pretty shapely for a lady of her age), but you never know peoples intent.

TheGrooveking

 

[G1GRANDEUR]

Store manager looking for a score. lol

You should have gave her the huge sockets you don't need

 

[eborcim]

no handouts from me to them...I figure if they want some money they need to do some work.

 

[woody 73]

Just my two cents but I always give some money if I have any because I figure it could happen to me one day.

 

[MartyO]

So, let me understand this correctly.

You gave an unknown crackhead money, but you won't show your crackhead friends here at GJ pictures of the toolbox??????

 

[enginenine]

I work out of a downtown firestation. I have heard so many sob stories that I don't believe any of them.

 

[ZRX61]

A
For 4 years I have driven the same route to/from work during the 4 years I have seen the same bums/druggies on the same corners and parking lots begging money. Sit back one day and watch to see how much people give them, absolutely mind boggling.
They can easily pull $100-$200+ a day out there, our local news did a piece on this not to long ago with interviews from a few local beggars. Keep in mind.....tax free....on top of getting fed at shelters and churches and getting food stamps plus some also get disability and what ever else they can.
And it gets burned up on drugs and drink...
Sorry for the rant but this subject gets me riled up.

Knew some guys in London back in the late '70's who would beg outside the tube stations for 2 or 3 hours a day. They were raking in about £1500/week so that was about $2200 at the time...

 

[Chris Adams]

Knew some guys in London back in the late '70's who would beg outside the tube stations for 2 or 3 hours a day. They were raking in about £1500/week so that was about $2200 at the time...

When I managed a division of stores for an autoparts chain, we had perhaps thirty stores with their own 'Homeless' the name at the time for panhandlers.
They would often stake out a section for themselves.
In meetings the store managers would often complain about them as many of the 'homeless' made more money than the managers. All the regulars made more than any clerk or parts technician.
One of my managers filmed his (he had two regulars) and discovered they were each pulling down more than 500 bucks a day.
Most had homes in the area, others were serious drug users and stayed broke.

Panhandling is actually pretty lucrative in the suburbs.
One woman was picked up by the police locally (investigation in which she may or may not have been a witness to a non-related crime) and they found she was holding 3k in cash. Which lead to another investigation, since cash carrying is quasi unlawful.
She easily proved it was hers. She was using the 'bury my baby' story that is so popular in Southern California.
She's still working that corner and that was two years ago.
The detective who questioned her is still complaining (lives near me), but it's not really against the law here.

 

[powertrip]

As far as im concerned, poor people have poor ways.

 

[ZRX61]

As far as im concerned, poor people have poor ways.

Go break your neck like I did 6 years ago & tell me how that affects your income.....

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

well at least you got a really good deal ..the ends justify the means

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

I only give money to veterans selling paper poppies
everybody else can pound sand

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

As far as im concerned, poor people have poor ways.

Go break your neck like I did 6 years ago & tell me how that affects your income.....

Generally speaking, Powertrip is right. Of course there's always exceptions.

 

[Wakefield]

There is an intersection along Lee Highway a few miles south of D.C. There is a large bank on one side and a credit union on the other. There is a slow traffic light with left turn arrows that often holds vehicles up for an extra red cycle. There are usually panhandlers working that intersection part of the day. There can be two,one on each side of the larger highway. I think they come together,work together. They have signs saying that they are disabled veterans or something.
I think they could be clearing 100K per year. Would be interesting if some other ones showed up to work that intersection,I wonder if panhandlers ever get into a turf war.
The woman at the pawnshop does not sound like the typical pro panhandler pulling in big money,she probably really was down and out.
I saw a "deaf mute" panhandler in a wheelchair finish his stint,I think put the wheelchair away,talk to his buddy as they left the grocery store where he had been operating. That one tricked me out of (?) $5. or something.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

I never give panhandlers money. And I never will.

 

[netbrad]

Never give panhandlers money, they may be working in pairs or groups. When the first one sees you pull out your wallet/money, their friend comes around to beat you up and take the whole thing.

Around here we have the "can you help me, my car is broke down and I don't have any money can you take me to an ATM" scam in the shopping center parking lots. One or two folks have been dumb enough to fall for it with bad results.

 

[speed bump]

Its the next day where are the pictures?

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

In high school, had a kid who used to dress up in salvation army clothes and go beg. This kid dyed his hair so many times it had gone white, and he half looked like an albino. He made a good amount.
Had a corner on my work route, where you could watch someone begging all day, then at the end of the day would pull out his bankroll, and walk over to his Mercedes. My b-i-l was a DFO at the time and this guy po'd him.

Friend offered someone a ride as "their car was broke and they lived across town", they walked to the other corner to beg.
Had a couple of semi family people I grew up with, get into meth. Thankfully the kids were taken away. Had one of them stop by a few years ago, and I didn't recognize him (would hate to see what it did to his sister), he was a few years younger then me and looked 15 years older.
She asked for a job, tell her the unemployment office needs help. Asks for a buck don't stop.

 

[powertrip]

In high school, had a kid who used to dress up in salvation army clothes and go beg. This kid dyed his hair so many times it had gone white, and he half looked like an albino. He made a good amount.
Had a corner on my work route, where you could watch someone begging all day, then at the end of the day would pull out his bankroll, and walk over to his Mercedes. My b-i-l was a DFO at the time and this guy po'd him.

Friend offered someone a ride as "their car was broke and they lived across town", they walked to the other corner to beg.
Had a couple of semi family people I grew up with, get into meth. Thankfully the kids were taken away. Had one of them stop by a few years ago, and I didn't recognize him (would hate to see what it did to his sister), he was a few years younger then me and looked 15 years older.
She asked for a job, tell her the unemployment office needs help. Asks for a buck don't stop.

These are the kind of people i waz referencing to when i said poor people have poor ways. Not the people who were working and had a job and got hurt on said job. The guy who broke is neck had an unfortunate accident but he had a job was working and not trying to sponge off of the working people. There is a difference there is working class and welfare class and beggers are welfare class and have poor ways.

 

[maxipouce]

Store manager looking for a score. lol

You should have gave her the huge sockets you don't need

And the answer would have been;

"r u tryin to F*%¨£ me or wut? wat da F*$# is dat square ole at de botom? I can't uz it for burnin crak!!
(meth also makes peaople bad at spelling)

Still a sad reminder that going the wrong way is easy .

 

[Danglerb]

Panhandling is actually pretty lucrative in the suburbs.
One woman was picked up by the police locally (investigation in which she may or may not have been a witness to a non-related crime) and they found she was holding 3k in cash. Which lead to another investigation, since cash carrying is quasi unlawful.
She easily proved it was hers. She was using the 'bury my baby' story that is so popular in Southern California.
She's still working that corner and that was two years ago.
The detective who questioned her is still complaining (lives near me), but it's not really against the law here.

Pretty sure its fraud, but nobody wants to mess with them because they are often MASTERS of the system, including making the best of getting arrested.

Dollar to the crackhead girl, most likely went directly to her "boyfriend" sitting waiting in some car.

Only time my dad would give a beggar money is if they were honest, as in I need a drink bad.

Only way it will ever end, and get the people into rehab is if everybody stops giving money, but giving money makes people feel better so they will never stop.

In SoCal every grocery store has people standing out front dressed in white uniforms asking for money for this or that, and they actually work for companies that keep most of the money and donate only whatever the minimum percentage is make come classification. Same is true for all but a few of the "goodwill" "type" of junk pickup groups.

 

[Farmrod]

What are the sockets if they're big wheel end sockets for heavy duty I will buy them if you want to sell them

 

[toymn6366]

a while back at the local walmart i pulled up on my scooter at 11:30 at night a guy was walking toward a girl of about 16 or 17 asking her for gas money she looked scared i holled at him that he was scaring her when he turned to look at me as i started toward him she ran to her car.I guess a 300 lb biker didn't look like he give a **** about his plight so he took off running,she circled her car around as i went into the store and told me thanks that he freaked her out and laughed and said that i had scared him.

 

[jhelrey]

I had a homeless guy ask for $. I had an Applebee's giftcard with about $7-8 dollars on it and offered it up. Didn't take it! Guess he wasn't very hungry. PS: There was an AB on the same block.

 

[ZRX61]

Just remembered a funny pan handler story.

This was probably 15 years ago. I was at a gas station in Santa Monica filling the bike when some guy rides in on an old Yamaha XS1100.

He parks the bike & walks over to where I am & says "Can ya spare a couple of bucks for a quart of Motul?"

Cracked me up & he got his $2

 

[2oolhound]

Don't get me started, I had a storefront business in the heart of downtown for 15 years.

Here's one that came a little too close to home though. Driving into town and stopped at a traffic light and notice a guy on the traffic island in the middle of the road leaned up against the left turn indicator sign post. He had a cardboard sign saying he'd just got a job but needed some money for groceries for his lunches to tied him over till his 1st paycheck. I was tempted to give him a couple bucks but the light changed and on I went (I almost never give beggars money after what I've seen). The next morning I find this guy's sign in the vacant lot beside my business. It blew me away enough that I grabbed my camera and snapped this photo. I felt like blowing the photo up and taping it to the sign at the intersection where he was the day before so everyone who gave him money could see where it went.

 

[Brad54]

I tell my son that not everyone who tries drugs ends up like that... but EVERY one of them that ends up like that tried them for the first time.
And not one person ever took that first hit on a joint and said "Man, this is gonna be great! When this ride is over, I'm gonna lose my house, my family, my pride and my self respect. I'm going to beg for money, and give blow jobs to strange men for a fix... (and since only men pay for ***, plan on going gay for drugs).
Not everyone ends up like that, but every single one of them has something in common--they all tried it for the first time, and not one of them thought they'd end up an addict.

-Brad

 

[skeletonizer]

You can take the girl (or boy) out of the trash but you can't take the trash out of the girl and you can't unfuk the past.

The only thing we can do to steer us out of this mess is raise our kids right.

 

[Chris Adams]

Pretty sure its fraud, but nobody wants to mess with them because they are often MASTERS of the system, including making the best of getting arrested.

Dollar to the crackhead girl, most likely went directly to her "boyfriend" sitting waiting in some car.

Only time my dad would give a beggar money is if they were honest, as in I need a drink bad.

Only way it will ever end, and get the people into rehab is if everybody stops giving money, but giving money makes people feel better so they will never stop.

In SoCal every grocery store has people standing out front dressed in white uniforms asking for money for this or that, and they actually work for companies that keep most of the money and donate only whatever the minimum percentage is make come classification. Same is true for all but a few of the "goodwill" "type" of junk pickup groups.

Um, not fraud.
How do I know?
My wife spent some time trying to prosecute one.
She was managing a bank and this one woman kept nailing her tellers, her customers etc. with the dead baby scam back in the 90's. First time I had ever heard that one, now I hear it about once a week.

The police can not, will not, prosecute in Southern California for 'begging' panhandling, lying for alms, etc.

The local sheriff that was telling me about the woman I mentioned in my post would pay money to bust them, but never gonna happen.

However, you are SO right about both the panhandlers and the 'makes me feel good' people who create them.

My mother in law worked at the local homeless shelter for about six months, till she couldn't stand it. A life long Communist, who was a true believer (cried for weeks when the U.S.S.R fell) she quit the homeless shelter because "These people aren't needy, they are lazy, drugged up, thieves!"

Really shook her world view for a few months.

A lot of people get down on their luck.
I never meet them panhandling.