Years ago when I was living and working in Memphis I would go to the road where all those auto dealerships are because of our family auto auction business. Every single day that I drove though in the 5 day work week in the morning I would see the same man standing at the light coming off the interstate and everyday in the afternoon he would be at the light to the onramp o the interstate. He had a TON of people driving by every day but Saturday and Sunday he was no where to be found.
On Sundays I would usually go to my Dad's for lunch and to watch the ballgames. One Sunday I was reading the Memphis paper and I came across a large color picture of that same guy. He was dressed in a brand new green uniform, green cap and he had a picture ID badge on his left pocket. The story said that the City gave him a beggar license and uniform, first Dad and I had ever heard about it.
That is NOT all the story had about him. He was married, 2 sons in college, had a 5 bedroom with 3 bathroom house, 2 autos and 1 truck, a camper, bass boat and they took a vacation every year down to the Gulf for a few weeks in some of the winter months.
In the 25-27 years since I read that article I have never given any money but I have offered work to people ever telling them right off I would pay cash and would ever pay for their lunch, others I said I would feed them right next door to where they were standing. NOT A ONE ever accepted my offers. All they wanted was the money.
Another thing. After reading that article some of the auto dealers over on that highway ran some numbers. By setting at one light when people were coming to work and the other in the afternoon while people were going home that guy was seeing close to 5,000+ people a day, most of them worked the area but some were auto customers. They told me if just 100 people gave the guy $5 then that's $500 per day in cash. Don't forget this was back in 1990. $2,500 per week in cash was very good money back then.
