I could kick myself. A young woman politely stopped me in food store parking lot, needing money

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

49. It reads like scam.

And the story is typical of scammers.Food store parking lots is just where scammers operate and many of those stores also have gas pumps. When you toss the coin up and give them something, you must also be alert to your surroundings . Scamers are predators.A situation such as you described can turn ugly fast.

The car also allows them to change shopping parking lot areas or localities to operate in, in some cases it is a full time occupation. As is drugs and alcohol abuse. So it was the store or work, the store where pan handling can be easy pick'ens. I have heard that same story 1000 or more times at least. The other one is the baby needs diapers & formula and now he is going to
miss a job interview because there is not enough gas to get there or back and his unemployment ran out and the rent is soon due. It goes on and on. On and on in those parking lots that are big and full of patrons coming and going .My work takes me all over the city and I see the same sham time and time again. Sometimes faces I saw in a different part of town across town, same story,same act. They like food store parking lots better than shopping mall parking lots because security at shopping mall parking lots is far better than food store parking lots. Less or no security means little to no chance of being run off.

At food stores it is the shift managers responsibility to run them off. And if there is or has been a run on problem with panhandling at your local, the shift managers at the food stores are obligated to tell you about that problem should you confront them about it, because if you are robbed in their parking lot,that becomes a matter for corporate security at the district management level. The scamers operate in time allotments because they know sooner or later somebody will alert store management.The automobile is the quick escape. They like to pick as a matter of preference shoppers leaving the store rather entering by way of the parking lot. They move in between cars from row to row in the approach-it can look like the shortest distance between two points, but the parked cars offer camouflage ,like a buffer zone between the pan handler and the security cameras. But if foot traffic is slow going,they will panhandle coming and going .Many shopping mall parking lots now also have mobile security units on patrol in the parking lots, that is part of reason why food store parking lots offer a better chance at the gain.

In some food stores pictures of chronic repeat panhandlers that have been run off many times and also run off at other food stores owned by the same food store chain are posted in the managers office. Many in those pictures have lengthy rap sheets -petty theft, disorderly ,and public nuisance type charges, dui's, drunk and disorderly, drug possession and so fourth.

Some of the pan handlers carry empty gas containers at gas station food marts to lend some validity to the scam.Also if a city ordnance is in place prohibiting pan handling, that may be a way around the ordnance-the gas container.

We donate to food banks and charitable organizations that assist such people in need .It good for them and it's good for you. and when we drive by local food banks from time to time and see the lines, we know we have done something good and continue to do so.Because the truth is there for you to see.

You see in the worst case scenario a free tank of gas and what little cash and change you have on hand could later lead to somebody across town who opens their wallet in a parking lot who happens to be carrying a considerable amount of cash and credit cards may be conked over the head than robbed because a full tank of gas got the scamers all the way to virgin territory.A locality where there is no competition between scamers. What the scammers call easy pick'ens.

Management at food chain stores have all the information about it, as does shopping mall security operations.

No doubt this not a popular view to it, but it is reality based and supported by facts.