Panhandling as prelude to a robbery?

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

OK, with the current discussion about crime I want to ask an opinion of the group. If you have a couple of youths ask you on the street for money, and they don't look homeless, is it a good idea to call the cops on them as "suspicious persons" or is it just me being suspicious?

Comments

that situation happened to me last month

[elements.livejournal.com]

Two high school looking kids stopped me on my street in Ball Sq and asked to borrow my cell phone to call their mom because they were stuck and from Quincy and they couldn't find any place with a pay phone. It just felt very fishy to me because there are so many stores and restaurants around, and I'd think someplace would have a pay phone, or a store that would let them call, etc. And then they wanted money for the T to Quincy but I didn't want to stop walking and open my purse long enough to look for cash in front of them so I kept walking and told them I had no cash and to go to the convenience store nearby for a phone.

It seemed fishy in large part because I was just half a block away from Broadway, with tons of foot traffic and stores, yet they chose to stop to ask me on my quiet street, just far enough in that we weren't in earshot of the Broadway foot traffic. It didn't escape me that there was no-one else on my street and it was dark, so I figured I'd keep walking while responding to them and not engage long enough to provoke something. It pinged wrongly enough that I made sure they had turned the corner before walking up to my own house.

Re: that situation happened to me last month

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

A while back, which is what got me thinking on the matter, is that I had a couple high-school aged kids stop me on Holland St asking for bus fare.

What was odd was, this was a quarter-mile away from Davis, why not ask for change there? Two, one of the kids was on a bike, and three, I grew up around here and believe me, even picking up a quarter off the floor was considered extremely uncool, never mind asking strangers on the street.