What Would You Have Done?

[crokett]

I stopped to get gas after running an errand and a woman came up and said she was out of gas and only had 3 bucks and could I spare a couple bucks. I didn't have any cash but didn't offer to put gas in her car on my CC. I did however suggest the ATM about a mile up the road. She said she'd forgotten her wallet. I asked how far away she lived. She said 10 minutes. I said that the cash she had would be enough to get her home to get her wallet and back to fill her tank. I also suggested she use the phone on her hip to call somebody to bring money. I suppose it was presumptuous to think if she had a cell phone she had somebody she could call....

She got annoyed with me.

[Uncle Cracker]

It's probably just a panhandling scam... Somebody with real car trouble would probably be too proud to ask for a couple bucks.

Ever stop to offer one of these "will work for food" bums a job? They don't want one.

[fbrend123]

Had that happen to me at the big shopping mall in Birch Run, MI. I told the gal to go see mall security and they would help her out. She thanked me politely, and left.

Also had a guy come up to me in a restaurant parking lot in Georgia, saying that he had no fuel for his truck, and no money, and had to make a delivery. He noticed that my pickup had a diesel engine. My brother, who is a Georgia State Trooper came along and handed him a quarter with which to call the local police dept. for help(not revealing that he was a cop, himself).

[fbrend123]

Forgot to mention that the guy asked me if he could siphon some fuel out of my tank so he could get under way. Probably would have done it on his own, if we hadn't come out when we did.

[gjat]

I wish I had a cup of gas for everytime I've heard that story. I'd have a tank of gas. You did right. It was a scam to panhandle or worse. The LAST thing you want to do is let them pump gas on your CC. I've heard of people inside the store being party to it and letting others fill up the tanks after you're seen on the security camera knowingly allowing someone to pump gas on it.
If you truely believe it's legit, I go inside and pre-pay a few bucks for gas with cash and keep the reciept. NEVER with a CC!

[Tom Slick]

was she out of gas or was her car out of gas? I usually get the feeling those few bucks were for getting gassed up on something else.

[Pappy]

At least it sounds like you were polite and made some some suggestions to help her situations. Had she run into me, getting "annoyed" wouldn't come close. And any suggestions would have invloved unnatural use of her own body parts....

[crokett]

Pappy, I wasn't exactly polite. As my boss told me once, you have a tendency to be brusque when you are annoyed. With her I was pretty brusque.

[Mrs. Wallnut]

I wish I had a cup of gas for everytime I've heard that story. I'd have a tank of gas. You did right. It was a scam to panhandle or worse. The LAST thing you want to do is let them pump gas on your CC. I've heard of people inside the store being party to it and letting others fill up the tanks after you're seen on the security camera knowingly allowing someone to pump gas on it.
If you truely believe it's legit, I go inside and pre-pay a few bucks for gas with cash and keep the reciept. NEVER with a CC!

I don't know about conveince stores in your area but our system in our store will not let us do anything like this. The card has to be ran we can not get the card number and type it in because our computers will not let us do that. I do know of people years ago that we fired from a job for doing this on the old systems that were in that store. We could run a number and it would go but now a days things are a little more sophisticated and there are quite a few extra steps and if you do not have the right codes it will not let you do it.

I have called the police on people like that who are asking for money. At our store we do not let them hang out because we do not want people like this hanging around the business. I truly believe if someone is in need that they try and call someone, at least that is what we tried to do when we had our little adventure on July 3rd. I try to believe something is wrong and they are truly in trouble but I also have a very guarded nature when it comes to things like this.