My brother (1942) and I went to shop yesterday for an extra internal hard drive for his computer. He has a 160 GB and it was getting full. He deleted stuff and cleaned it up, but thought he should still add one. That's where I come in. I went to his house, we opened up the PC, gave it a good cleaning. I made sure there was a cable for the extra drive - power, yes. Cable for data - no. His was SATA (like mine) and I just did mine (wait, how many times? LOL!).
Leaving the store and in the parking lot a nice young lady asked me "Can I ask you a question?" Besides the fact that she just did, I said "Yes." She began, "I ran out of gas...." and pointed across the parking lot. I snorted (or something to that effect) and shook my head. "No way!" I said.
She said "Oh, okay." As I walked away I told my brother "I'm not falling for THAT one!"
In the car I explained to him that just this past month both our brother 1953 and his wife's niece were ripped off by somebody claiming to have run out of gas. They both gave the guy money (his wife and kids were still in the car out on the freeway, for goodness sake!) and never saw it again. The stories are much more complex, but you get the idea.
Then they told me there were crack addicts walking around (the city my brother lives in) the parking lots telling the woeful store of running out of gas, so they could score some drug money. When we got home and told our sister 1944, she said "That's a shame. Those people are ruining it for people who actually do need help."
Well, I told my story on facebook and wouldn't you know... a friend of mine said "That was my cousin, and she really DID run out of gas!" I apologized and told her why I did what I did. I also told her (and my sister) it was strange because this girl did not look like a drug addict (but who am I to know what one looks like?). She had nice hair and clothes and she looked healthy.
So I have learned a lesson. I should at least listen to the person before I make such a harsh judgement again. I should have said "I have my cell phone, can I call somebody for you?" I know better than to hand my phone over to them.
I also was a bit perplexed by the way she started her story. My reasoning was (before I discovered that she was my friend's cousin) was that 1. - who does not have a cell phone with them? (I know some folks don't but it is rare). 2. If I ran out of gas, I would not ask people if I could ask them a question, I would just blurt out - "Can you help me?" or "Do you have a cell phone, can you call somebody for me?" - my first words out of my mouth would be "I ran out of gas". Of course I probably would have stopped her right there, but if you need assistance, I don't know - I don't think you start out with "Can I ask you a question?" That is more like starting a conversation about "Is this restaurant any good, or do you know the directions to somewhere?" Or even worse - 'Who are you voting for and can I give you my opinion on the candidates?' Yikes.
So, next time (if there is a next time) I will listen first and let my instincts tell me if that person in need IS on the up and up. I still remember Tabor's story about the nice looking lady in the drug store.
And a quick recap on yesterday's post about facebook in the classroom, here is a page that I thought has some pretty good pointers. http://www.heppell.net/facebook_in_school/.
4 comments:
If I needed help I would go to the nearest store owner...not just someone standing out in the lot or even someone in the store. The store owner is the one who can at least call for you!
We see the same characters pulling the "out of gas" scam in the same parking lot every week. You would think by now they would come up with something else.
I am so glad I do not shop alone; my husband is always with me.
Not that I would fall for those scams, but rather I would be drop kicking them into next week. Fear me.
You are all absolutely spot on. My co-workers and family says that they think my one friend was kidding when she claimed that was her cousin.
They ALL agree it was a scam. If you are stranded and need help you don't go around asking somebody if you can ask them a question like you are taking some kind of a survey or something.
Post a Comment