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O/T this bothers me

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notjustair

Well-known Member
I needed to go to Menards in Topeka. Two windows I had ordered were in. I also needed a new "a trouble light" as I broke mine yesterday adjusting the governor on the M. You know, the hand held plug in lights with the hook on them.

About two blocks from the store I noticed a homeless gal with a black dog. Kinda made me feel bad, it being Easter and all. That is, until I was leaving and saw a man there with a brown dog HOLDING THE SAME SIGN! I have seen on the news how sometimes that is a racket and people are bringing in lots of cash. I just have never seen it so blatant. Must have been shift change.

Am I the only one that calls those "trouble lights"? We always have. Was that a brand or something?
 
Yeah, we always called them "trouble lights" in my neck of the woods. I guess it is because you can shine the light5 on the "trouble spot". I have also heard them called "drop lights", which pretty well fits me, 'cause every darned time I use one I drop it and have to replace the bulb!
 
I called them trouble lights for 70 year; now they are called work lights. I guess you need a light if you are going to work in the dark - but you probably wouldn't work in the dark if you didn't have trouble!
 
A couple times lately there's a guy standing near a big box store intersection with a sign saying he's hungry. I've thought it would be fun to get him a fast food sandwich, but the intersection where he's been is busy, would have to stop some traffic. Don't know if he's legit...
 
I have found these small 9 LED flashlights work well as trouble lights. Can easily put near your work. Very bright and don't have to pack around a cord. Batteries last a long time and they are not Hot. They seem to have their place.
 
There"s no doubt there are scammers out there taking advantage of others. But, there are now many families that are homeless and can"t get work. If this couple was legit then cudos to hubby for giving his wife a break. If scammers, shame on them, they shall reap their rewards.
 
I call em drop cords too. The worst were the retractable drop cords. You would crawl under a car with the dang thing, then the spring would decide to randomly reel itself back in and then break the bulb. I use the cordless leds now.
 
Trouble lights here also. I finally got sick of getting burned, and got a new style LED, or whatever it is, battery powered one. Good thing too because I was just using it yesterday while adjusting my truck clutch. Had to give up and tie it up right over my face. (After it fell from where I had it perched and whacked me in the nose and eye).
 
I'm sure those scammers had luxury sleeping bags at their home under the bridge. Seen them change shifts when working on a draw bridge. They also save alot by doing laundry in the river. Spoke to one girl [homeless] who was quite intelligent. Never asked how she got to be living under a bridge. Always called those lights drop lights.
 
I've always called them a drop light, but have heard them called both work and trouble lights also.

I've got a customer in Raleigh, NC that talkes about an old guy that stands, or used to anyway, at the top of one of the interstate off ramps holding a sign begging for food, etc. Customer told me he that on several occasions he would hit the ramp at just the right time and see a fairly new, high end, car pull up and the guy would run over and hop in. Seems like panhandling is pretty profitable.

That said I watched a show a few years ago where they looked into the profitibility of panhandling. They went to various cities, various types of places, and made up signs saying different things. In every case they were makign more money just sitting there asking for handouts than the average minimum wage worker makes, and it was all cash. The most profitable sign wasi something like, 'Will work for beer', or something off the wall like that. Those signs got people paying more and, in several cities, had people asking to pose with the guy for pics.
 
yep trouble lights, used em when there was trouble on something that needed fixed. How many lights have been broke in those darn things. Got a headlight/band thing wear on head, very bright , LED, great, cause where ever you twist and bend to look the light is there. mine will last about 3 hours on high, no more trouble lights for me
 
The people you see begging at major urban intersections are usually not real beggars. They are begging as a job. Not the homeless type you think about.

I have helped some that where really homeless but they where usually in parking lots in their car. One of these is a lady with four kids that was homeless 17 year ago. Her car was out of gas in a parking lot of a local strip store. I happened to be getting parts from a NAPA store there two days in a row. I saw her there with her kids playing around the car. She had just spent her last little bit of money on food for the kids. My wife and I helped her get on her feet. She now has a home cleaning business and cleans our house every other week.

Another was a family trying to get back to Missouri from the Twin Cities. They where broke down in a rest area on I-35. I helped them get their car going and gave them some gas money. I got the money sent back a few months later. I since visited them south of Springfield Mo.

One way to tell is if you give them a gift certificate good for food and they get mad you did not give them money. I have some that Fareway (A local grocery chain) has. They are only redeemable for food items only. Not smokes or booze. I carry a couple of them in my bill fold.
 
My nephew in ST Cloud MN met some kids from a homeless family living out of a car. My BIL went and talked to the parents and brought enough fast food with him for the family. Mom and dad were homeless because they wanted to be and were upset that my BIL brought them food instead of money. BIL even offered to let them stay at his place and to help the guy find work. He wasn't interested. So my BIL call social services.

Another time I was in Fargo and had just got done with a VA appt. My wife and I were going to do some shopping and saw a guy, grey haired and beard in an old OG green field jacket with a sign "homeless Vet, need money for meds". I stopped and offered to give him a ride to VA and to walk him through getting signed up for some help. He refused. Mine you that he was within walking distance to VA.

Yup called em drop or trouble lights for many years.

Rick
 
Around here most call them drop lights. A trouble light is something you plug in in your car/truck if you have a break down.
 
A while back, there was a youtube video of a NY police officer buying a bum a pair of shoes. Turns out this guy is a pseudobum, lives in an apartment, has like 40 pairs of shoes, in the closet, there. Shin your trouble light on them, and they scurry off!
 
I call them either drop lights or trouble lights.

Was in California once in the LA area at the beach. Spent a good part of the day just seeing what goes on there, having never been.

So, here's this bum that was begging on the boardwalk (not actual boards there, but same environment) packs up to go home. Having nothing to do and sitting at an outdoor cafe, I watched him. He goes over to the parking lot and the next thing I know this black Escalade backs out and drives off.

I don't remember if I donated or not but it gave me a deeper understanding of the process.

Mark
 
I call them a trouble light, and HAD one from a box of GOOD STUFF. It was plastic and melted. I have several different light from those normal down to a small LED. Nice one is a three way LED about 14" long, cord less. I also have a magnet with a LED light in the end of it. People say I'm always in the dark. Ha Ha
 
I've always heard them called drop lights.

By the way, those little $3 LED "work lights" they sell at TSC at the cash register are pretty handy to stow in a glove box. With the hooks and magnetic back they'll help you under a dark engine bay pretty well.


I think it was Austin, Tx a few years back where two news reporters pretended to be homeless and begged on the street corners in order to learn more about the local homeless. Seems they found out that several of the community beggers were making some good money.

The thing that bothers me are the ones that beg at the gas stations. Last week in Dallas I had a guy pull up in a truck while I was pumping gas and asked if he could have a few gallons after a story about how he was down on his luck. Then he seemed ------ when I said no. It got me leaning towards the back side of the gas pump since I didn't know if he was packing or even aiming at me already. ...that was a weird feeling...
 
Where I used to get gas, people would frequently walk up with a hard luck story about their vehicle being out of gas and they didn"t have any money for gas. Vehicle was up on the freeway with wife and/or kids.

Problem #1 - if you don"t have enough gas to get you where you want to go and back home, why did you leave the house?

Problem #2 - you are asking for money because you"re vehicle is out of gas, but you"re standing there without a gas can. How do you intend to get the gas to your vehicle?

I quit going to that gas station, even though the prices are low, because its so seedy and I"m tired of the panhandling.
 
Back in the late 90's when I worked in downtown Dallas across from the main post office, I had a police officer tell me never to give money to anyone downtown. He said those "bums" drive their cadillacs and lincolns downtown, change into grubby clothes, beg money all day, then get back in their caddys to go home. He said, even back then, they made $60,000/yr begging for money.

There are some street corners in the Dallas area that are so profitable for beggars, that the "beggars" fight over them.

Got so bad, Dallas finally passed an ordinance making it illegal to stand on a street corner and beg for money.
 
Store near work has a guy that stands outside with a walker and a knee brace on begging. Hes always there for the breakfast rush, always has a biscuit and smokes someone has donated. I had to come in early to do some training with some of the boys on third shift, saw the same guy walking up there carrying the brace and the walker thrown over his shoulder. Asked the ladies at the store about him, he lives in a hotel near there and has for awhile, bums enough for food smokes and to pay for the hotel room.
 
We don't have alot but we have a home and food on the table. Some of the people holding signs get to me occasionally and I will give them a couple of bucks. But, not if they have a dog or are smoking a cigarett.
 
One time my stepson had just been to Burger King and bought several sandwiches.
There was a guy at a freeway ramp holding up a sign "will work for food". When stepson handed him a sandwich, the beggar threw it back in his face.

I have seen these guys working in shifts, one holds up a sign while the other goes for a break and comes back with a bottle in a brown sack, taking a few swigs.

Makes a person [b:481fc11ae2]not[/b:481fc11ae2] feel sorry for them.

Myron
 
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