Spare change scammer redux

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

I've seen a few posts here and b0st0n lately about the "spare change scammer". This is a guy whose typical scam is to try to sell you a spare change newspaper and when you give him a $1, he walks away. He is also known to sometimes switch off and give you one of the free newspapers instead of the spare change paper.

Legitimate people who sell spare change newspapers will be wearing an ID badge.

Anyway, I saw him this morning and I took his picture with my crappy cell phone camera.





He is about 50 or so, wears a leather "beret" type hat and sunglasses.

X-posted to b0st0n.

Comments

Re: Not to ruin the party but...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Fine, perhaps we need also somebody on the T pointing out that it is pretty sad that our employed and well fed friend (Ron) is so obsessed about getting a guy who seems to be spending all his days pretending to be homeless. One day we'll find him dead on the sidewalk outside Porter Sq. Then we'll feel really proud.

Re: Not to ruin the party but...

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

I seem to have missed the post where Ron came to your house and pissed into your cheerios.

Re: Not to ruin the party but...

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

You've made some comments on this community lately where I don't know if you are actually serious or trying to troll for your own amusement.

Re: Not to ruin the party but...

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Seriously.

Re: Not to ruin the party but...

[theref.livejournal.com]

So what do you propose? Just allow him to continue to scam people, ruining the name of a charity that tries to HELP homeless people, as well as lowering the expectations of the general public regarding the homeless population? Because that seems like a great way for Spare Change to make money to actually help homeless people.

I buy Spare Change, when I have the, (ironically), spare change to do so. I know that it's going to a good cause. However, all these people who get scammed by our leather-beret wearing friend will look at all the authorized sellers with suspicion.

As for the legitimate Spare Change vendor in Davis, (you all know who I'm talking about, "Spaaaaare Chaaaange Newspaper!"), I've been buying from him since highschool.

I call troll on this post, but I needed to vent a wee bit.