Boat Bum Panhandlers

[sailorboy1]

Was at the marina today because the boat was suppose to launch (it didn't). There was a Catalina 42 in the hoist with a younger couple on it. I think this boat was short hauled as it wasn't in the yard a couple day earlier and the day before it was over by the lift getting a waxing and bottom paint. Boat looked pretty well equipped and even had TV dish on it.

The thing that really caught my attention was the sign laying in the cockpit. "Homeless and Cold, please help .....". Now I see people carrying these hand written poster boards a lot at various Boston intersections, but this is first time I've see it on a boat. And it wasn't even a beat up boat!

[YOGAO]

Don,

I've always said that if I became homeless, jobless and without income, I'd find a boat in a marina and make it mine.

hmmm...wait a minute! I am homeless (sort of), jobless and without an income. Any other Catalina 42s up there?

Fair winds,
Mike

[sailorboy1]

At least 3 Catalina-42s in the yard (they seem to have enough live to believe the owners care). But to me a Catalina-42 isn't homeless (the TV dish just pushed me too far to accept that living on it was being "homeless"). But there is hope as I think there are some "lost" boats in the yard that get close to be homeless.

[scallywag]

When I lived in Philadelphia, Pa., the local TV station did a story on a homeless man. He lived in the suburbs and took public transportation into town each day. He claimed he made a nice income begging. I do not remember the amount but I do remember he made more than I did working fulltime.

[GordMay]

Undoubtably, there are hundreds of thousands of men, women, & children, who are homeless & cold on any given night, in the world’s richest country.
This younger couple may not be among them.
Like others, they may not be telling the exact & complete truth, if they display that sign.

Do you have a point?

[sailorboy1]

That was the point! Living on a well kept Catalina-42 isn't being homeless and cold!

[Mule]

In Houston sometime around 1997 I saw a guy at an intersection with a sign that said, "Why lie, Jimmy needs a beer". Hell, I gave him $5 and I NEVER do that.

A few days later he was on TV being intervied and the Houston Chronicle did a little story with a picture.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Mule

In Houston sometime around 1997 I saw a guy at an intersection with a sign that said, "Why lie, Jimmy needs a beer". Hell, I gave him $5 and I NEVER do that.

A few days later he was on TV being intervied and the Houston Chronicle did a little story with a picture.

Are you sure that wasn't Jimmy's brother Billy?

TaoJones

[Mule]

Mightta been?

[tallyhorob]

sounds like Key West, " Can you spare a dollar for beer research? "

[senormechanico]

A quick search shows anywhere from "$10 a day" according to the bleeding heart Seattle report, to $300 a day from a Coos Bay Oregon paper.

The average annual income of several reports I read was nearly $100k a year.

A Mendocino paper reported,
"Anecdotal accounts suggest a few panhandlers do quite well. For instance, a recent news story tells of Jason Pancoast and Elizabeth Johnson, self-described "affluent beggars" from Ashland, Oregon. The couple estimates they can make $30-40,000 per year from panhandling. They boast earnings as high as $300 per day, and assert they once made $800 in one day. Similarly, a former Denver City Council president claimed to know panhandlers who made hundreds of dollars per week, or even per day. City Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth said, "I know some people are making $150 to $300 or $400 a day. There are some people who are in desperate situations but many who are panhandling for a living." One hesitates to generalize from such stories, though."

$300 x 335 days (a month off for vacation of course!) = $100,500.00 TAX FREE.

My wife once worked in a deli.
A raggedy looking homeless woman came in to "use the bathroom".
She was heard talking on her cellphone while in there.
About ten minutes later, she emerged, dressed to the nines in high heels and expensive clothes and jewelry. She walked out to the street where a guy in a fancy BMW picked her up.
At the same time, the car discharged a homeless man...

It happened in Kenmore Washington.

[unbusted67]

Maybe the boat was homeless and cold and the people were just trying to help it out.

I have seen people with those signs putting eye shadow on their faces to look more down trodden. Seems like a good scheme to me.

[s/v Beth]

I see three possible reasons that sign was there.
1. The people doing the waxing on the boat could be homeless and left the sign.
2. The people could be living on the boat and consider themselves homeless..
3. The people owning the boat could have left their sign when they went to their proper home. (sigh)

In my home state, a homeless person was observed for a while to just see how much they did make. The result was over 20 dollars an hour...And this was back in 1990. As a medical resident I was making less.

[ConradG]

Perhaps the owners of the boat are putting the poor downtrodden soul up for the night?

Perhaps they Jeffry Dalmerred him and fook his money?

But hey, it is starting to sound like a good way to play the money game. Do you think Harvard will offer a major in the field soon? I'm sure there are proven ... techniques. I bet the market will hold pretty well no matter what the economy does. What an exciting career. You can probably do quite well in may places in the world.

[Reckless]

Many years ago in my college days, a friend and I were waiting to catch a bus home after spring break, we missed our first bus and had to wait 3 hours to catch the next one. While there we challenged each other to see how much money we could get people to give.
So using the poor college kid don't have enough money to get back home story. I was able to raise around $150 in 3 hours, my friend was well over $200(he looked a little more needy then me)

I feel guilty about that now so I make sure to do my part. But I have heard stories of "homeless" people dying and authorities finding large amounts of money stashed.

I had talked to a guy who claimed he was homeless last summer at a motorcycle rally, he was going around collecting empty cans. He did this the entire time of the 3 day event.

As we were leaving I watched him load up a few bags into a rather nice dump trailer, being pulled by a brand new Ram 2500 pick up.

I questioned him, he said he isn't actually homeless but he finds people ask less questions, but he can pull in a few thousand dollars over the long weekend just from empties.