“The Street Swindle”
Sure, I have seen it happen
on TV shows and in movies and you silently say to yourself, “How could that guy
be that stupid to fall for that trick, scam, swindle?” Well, it is different
than in the movies or TV when it actually happens to you or at least it was,
when it happened to me.
Since my son moved to New
York City to go to school some years ago, I have visited NY many times and I
should have known better but…..
I think it was on my second
trip there that one morning, my son, my wife and I all went out for breakfast
at a local dinner and being the quickest to finish the meal, with the last bite
down the hatch, I headed outside for a cigarette.
On the sidewalk of
“I was getting into my car
and my keys dropped down the storm drain and I don’t have the money for a taxi
to get home and pick up my other set. Could you help me with maybe $20? If you
give me your address I promise to bring you the money or mail it to you.”
Now this guy was no hobo or
homeless person and he was educated and spoke well and was respectful and could
have been in any line of work and hey, sure, I had my doubts but then again,
why not help?
So out comes my wallet and I
pull a twenty dollar bill out and hand it to him and begin to put my wallet
back into my rear pants pocket when he says, “Oh, your address?” and so I pull
my wallet back out of my pants and pull out a business card and then he says,
“I am sorry but I really need $20 and you gave me a ten.” “What?” I think to
myself, I was sure I had given him a twenty but there in his hand was a ten and
so back into my wallet I go although I was pretty sure by now that this was a
scam, swindle, con job.
Now with a twenty in his hand
and my business card and most likely another of my twenties in his pocket, he
thanked me and headed on down the street. Now I have no evidence to support it
but I suspect he knew as he walked away, I knew, he had just “taken me to the
cleaners” and that was the sum total of the transaction.
Of course I felt stupid but
on the other hand, if there was a chance he was legitimate, then I had really
helped him and that is all I can ever do: try.
Of course I never received
any money in the mail from him. After the mix up on the 20, with me being sure
I had given him a twenty to begin with, I really never expected to hear from
him. I had been had.
Now in the grand scheme of
things, this whole event is really not all that significant but like most
things that happen to me or others or just happen at all, it makes we wonder.
I wonder who he really was? Did
he really drop his keys down some storm drain, I really did get the ten and
twenty mixed up and he just forgot to send me the money? Was he really a street
con man? Was he a full time street hustler or only a college student earning
some extra dollars? Was he a regular “Joe” just scamming for the fun of it or
to practice his real job of talking people out of their money over the phone or
in some department store? As he was educated, spoke well and was dressed well,
why not a regular job? Where does one go to learn the art of street hustle? Is
there some school in NYC where you are trained how to pick pockets and talk
people on the street out of their money? Did he have a pimp like I understand many
prostitutes have who take care of them or provide clothes, protection, whatever,
in return for taking a share of the daily “take”? How much could he make in a
week, a month, a year? In my case, I gave him; I am pretty sure, $40 and let’s
say that he gets 2 people a day, minimum, to give him $40 or $80 a day, 5 days
a week for $400 a week. That comes out to $20,000 or so a year, which really
would not keep a person in “high cotton” in NYC. So this was a part time gig or
he worked it hard and made more than $80 a day or worked more than 5 days a
week. Does a street hustler, hustle, for all his life? What sort of career
movement does one have in that profession? Does he have favorite spots he works
or does he just move around the city as he feels like it? On and on I could go
about this guy who took me but you understand some of my wonders about him.
Then there is the wonder of:
“why me?” Here I am standing on the sidewalk, smoking a cigarette and I don’t
dress like some rich person and didn’t think I looked like some hick or tourist
but there must have been some reason he decided on asking me for the money. Oh,
I know, he probably asks dozens of people in any one day as what I think he
does, street hustle, is surely a numbers game with perhaps only a hit or 2 all
day long but still, he has to pick targets, marks, based on something. What is
it? Could he have some predator instinct about him that senses that I always
want to help, if I can? Or was it that I just looked dumb, stupid, naďve? Was I
too wrapped up in trying to sense out the city that I became isolated in my own
little world and he could feel this or see this in my body language or
movements? Perhaps I did not stand like a native; smoke a cigarette like a
native; dress like a native? There must have been something.
And I wonder why I always
feel so compelled to want to help? Oh, I will never change and so from time to
time, I am sure I have given money to a homeless person who used it to buy wine
or beer instead of food or “bettering” him or herself somehow but that does not
stop me from wanting to help, share, but I do wonder where this attitude,
desire, came from? Does it come out of all my Christian education as a child?
Many people get Christian education but they would never give a homeless person
a dime and surely they would not fall for the old “car keys down the storm
drain” trick. But me, I will and do.
As I said, in the grand
scheme of things, the whole street swindle is not of much consequence but
still, one of those things in life that you wonder about afterwards.
Oh yeah, do ants sleep?