Current Events > Just saw something pretty disturbing at the liquor store

(+) Yeah! (+)

The guy in front of me in line obviously had a hard life. Dirty clothes, mumbling to himself, etc. He paid for his items with change out of a sunglasses case. When I walked out to my car I noticed he was messing around with the cigarette butt container. I sat there for a second and watched him take the lid off and pull out a whole bunch of cigarette butts and put them in his pocket.

Apparently he picked out the longer ones so he could smoke later? Man I feel bad for someone who has reached that point in their life. I actually considered rolling the window down and offering to just buy him a pack of cigarettes, but what's the point?
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I've seen this before. Too many times I might add. Cigarette addictions are no joke, it's neck and neck with heroin as far as addiction goes.

You know those big cigarette containers in front of gas stations? I've seen someone literally lift that thing to get to the butts and just sift through them. In broad daylight, with no shame.

And it's kind of sickening because all those butts have probably been sitting there for a while and are half smoked, have been sitting in ash and maybe rainsoaked then dried. A plethora of lips worth of cigarette butts, I'm sure someone has herpes or something included in that stash of cig butts. It's like, damn.
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He let his shitty priorities get the best of him. Giving anything to him besides food just feeds his bad habits at this point.
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The only positive I could think of is maybe he doesn't smoke the butts, maybe he rips them open and uses the tobacco for fresh rollies. Still gross, tho. We had a guy around my apartment complex who would steal from ashtrays people left outside. It got so bad I started bringing mine in.
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Lost_All_Senses posted...

He let his shitty priorities get the best of him. Giving anything to him besides food just feeds his bad habits at this point.

Yeah exactly
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The ashtray outside one of the local AA places gets raided every other day.
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Whompin bobula
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I've seen nicotine addicts raid public ashtrays. I don't have any sympathy.
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I've smoked my old day old snipes before and even that's disgusting
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Ricky from Trailer Park Boys, guys.
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Who gives a fuck what they do with your money?

If they want to get booze let them get booze, if they want cigarettes so what? If that's helping survive why does it matter? It's your choice to give them money..you're not obligated to.
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Smells like mental health issues
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You must be pretty sheltered if this is your first experience with this. Where I grew up, there were at least four or five guys that did that daily.

Then again, I grew up in a place that thought mental health was a joke and alcoholism was a totally legitimate lifestyle choice.

Unsugarized_Foo posted...

Smells like mental health issues

Is it or you just get to the point of no fucks given?
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nayr626 posted...

Who gives a fuck what they do with your money?

If they want to get booze let them get booze, if they want cigarettes so what? If that's helping survive why does it matter? It's your choice to give them money..you're not obligated to.

I can answer this pretty easily. It's because they lie about it. They come up with a sob story that probably isn't true, or a half truth at best, to get me to give them money.

To illustrate, there was one that told me he was starving and needed change to buy food from the gas station I was walking into. Well there was a jack in the box literally right next door. I said "well I don't have any cash, but I'll buy you a burger from there real quick". He literally said don't worry about it.

At another instance, I had someone ask me "hey man, can you get me change for a beer?" I said I didn't have any cash. But I bought two 40s for him and just handed them to him after I was done. And that was the end of our interaction.

You wanna know why? Fucker was honest about what he wanted and didn't want to play games or straight up lie to me to gain my pity. I drink and smoke cigarettes too, who am I to judge the dude for being in a shitty situation and wanting to catch a buzz to relieve the stress? I don't have the financial capabilities to get this dude treatment or anything. So I don't mind throwing the homeless dudes a bone every now and then because shit like that makes their day. But I do at least appreciate when they can at least acknowledge and admit what they want money for.
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WaterLink posted...

I can answer this pretty easily. It's because they lie about it. They come up with a sob story that probably isn't true, or a half truth at best, to get me to give them money.

Yeah, but who cares? I give money to homeless people and if they go spend it on something I think is a bad idea, it's not my problem. My karmic slate is clean and I feel good about giving money to someone who needs it more. I got my emotional payoff, I'm not their parent, who cares?

I was hanging out with a couple friends at the mall one time, and one of the girls had us wandering all over the outside of the mall looking for "halfies".
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Dash_Harber posted...

WaterLink posted...

I can answer this pretty easily. It's because they lie about it. They come up with a sob story that probably isn't true, or a half truth at best, to get me to give them money.

Yeah, but who cares? I give money to homeless people and if they go spend it on something I think is a bad idea, it's not my problem. My karmic slate is clean and I feel good about giving money to someone who needs it more. I got my emotional payoff, I'm not their parent, who cares?

Idk, maybe I like seeing people who are realistic about the situation they're in and don't try to beat around the bush, and also turn down an offer to relieve their hunger when they claim they want money to eat food because it's not handing them cash? And I don't carry cash, so it's not like I can give them money anyway. I will buy something on the side for them. The people that were hungry turned down a burger and wanted no more to do with me. The people that asked for a beer got 2 beers. Simple as that
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WaterLink posted...

Dash_Harber posted...

WaterLink posted...

I can answer this pretty easily. It's because they lie about it. They come up with a sob story that probably isn't true, or a half truth at best, to get me to give them money.

Yeah, but who cares? I give money to homeless people and if they go spend it on something I think is a bad idea, it's not my problem. My karmic slate is clean and I feel good about giving money to someone who needs it more. I got my emotional payoff, I'm not their parent, who cares?

Idk, maybe I like seeing people who are realistic about the situation they're in and don't try to beat around the bush, and also turn down an offer to relieve their hunger when they claim they want money to eat food because it's not handing them cash? And I don't carry cash, so it's not like I can give them money anyway. I will buy something on the side for them. The people that were hungry turned down a burger and wanted no more to do with me. The people that asked for a beer got 2 beers. Simple as that

Meh, I don't usually carry cash either. Either way, though, if someone takes something nice I do and turns it into something bad, that's their problem, not mine. I'm not here to make sure everyone is on the up and up.

I would buy him a pack of smokes and beer, who knows he might have been screwed over from a hospital bill.
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WaterLink posted...

nayr626 posted...

Who gives a fuck what they do with your money?

If they want to get booze let them get booze, if they want cigarettes so what? If that's helping survive why does it matter? It's your choice to give them money..you're not obligated to.

I can answer this pretty easily. It's because they lie about it. They come up with a sob story that probably isn't true, or a half truth at best, to get me to give them money.

To illustrate, there was one that told me he was starving and needed change to buy food from the gas station I was walking into. Well there was a jack in the box literally right next door. I said "well I don't have any cash, but I'll buy you a burger from there real quick". He literally said don't worry about it.

At another instance, I had someone ask me "hey man, can you get me change for a beer?" I said I didn't have any cash. But I bought two 40s for him and just handed them to him after I was done. And that was the end of our interaction.

You wanna know why? Fucker was honest about what he wanted and didn't want to play games or straight up lie to me to gain my pity. I drink and smoke cigarettes too, who am I to judge the dude for being in a shitty situation and wanting to catch a buzz to relieve the stress? I don't have the financial capabilities to get this dude treatment or anything. So I don't mind throwing the homeless dudes a bone every now and then because shit like that makes their day. But I do at least appreciate when they can at least acknowledge and admit what they want money for.

I'm the same way, except I still give money to people blatantly lying if their story/approach is really well staged. Some of them are really good at what they do and I can respect that in a strange way.

I mostly just pass them by, though. The amount of those characters I see everyday due to the nature of the city I work in is unbelievably high, it sometimes gets tiring. I've seen some really, really sad stuff. Some days more than others.

Most recently saw a guy laying down on the sidewalk, rolling over ever so slightly and started urinating without ever sitting up. Then he just rolled over and went back to sleep.
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Dash_Harber posted...

Meh, I don't usually carry cash either. Either way, though, if someone takes something nice I do and turns it into something bad, that's their problem, not mine. I'm not here to make sure everyone is on the up and up.

I mean, I fuck with that philosophy. I just typically don't have money to give. All I'm saying is that if someone asks me for something, if I can reasonably afford to give it out, I'll buy it for them. I just rarely have physical cash to give out. I keep all my change at home, not in my car. Got no problem buying a meal for someone, or even a beer or a pack of smokes for someone. All I ask for is honesty. If you say you're hungry and I offer you to buy a burger, and you say no, then you're SOL. Don't see why you'd turn down a free meal if you're that much out of your luck but hey I'm not gonna judge. If they'd just be more honest then I bet they'd get the shit they want more often
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WaterLink posted...

nayr626 posted...

Who gives a fuck what they do with your money?

If they want to get booze let them get booze, if they want cigarettes so what? If that's helping survive why does it matter? It's your choice to give them money..you're not obligated to.

I can answer this pretty easily. It's because they lie about it. They come up with a sob story that probably isn't true, or a half truth at best, to get me to give them money.

To illustrate, there was one that told me he was starving and needed change to buy food from the gas station I was walking into. Well there was a jack in the box literally right next door. I said "well I don't have any cash, but I'll buy you a burger from there real quick". He literally said don't worry about it.

At another instance, I had someone ask me "hey man, can you get me change for a beer?" I said I didn't have any cash. But I bought two 40s for him and just handed them to him after I was done. And that was the end of our interaction.

You wanna know why? Fucker was honest about what he wanted and didn't want to play games or straight up lie to me to gain my pity. I drink and smoke cigarettes too, who am I to judge the dude for being in a shitty situation and wanting to catch a buzz to relieve the stress? I don't have the financial capabilities to get this dude treatment or anything. So I don't mind throwing the homeless dudes a bone every now and then because shit like that makes their day. But I do at least appreciate when they can at least acknowledge and admit what they want money for.

lol when I went to California I saw a hobo with a sign that said "Forget lies. Need booze"
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I tend to give out a mess of change to clear it out of my car when I go to Albuquerque.

I gave one guy two or three heaping handfulls because I recognized him. First time I saw him was a Burger King on Carlisle when I was eating with a buddy. He came up and asked not for money, but if there were jobs available where we worked.

The homeless population was also really nice to me when I was stuck walking on a cane.
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ok
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