Talk:Begging

I got the article started, if anyone can help with the article I'd really appreciate it. During my recent vacation in Chicago I came face to face with begging a few times. It's what led me to get the article started.

One night I walked about a block from the hotel to the local Walgreens. While I was checking out, a man came up and began asking me for money. The man was getting quite pushy. During the night, a security guard was in the establishment, and the cashier had the security guard remove the man from the store. The guard said it wasn't the first time the man had been a problem, that he was regularly doing this.
A couple times I was asked if I had any money to spare. I also seen people sitting on the sidewalks asking passerby for donations.
Another thing that came to mind was that when I was driving near Midway Airport, this man was trying to sell stuff to drivers. He was going up and down in between cars, and darting in and out of traffic. I just remember thinking how incredibly dangerous it was. If I had a cell phone on me, I might have called the police to report it. Not only was the traffic quite heavy, but there were a number of semi trucks on the road. All it would have taken was one wrong move and the man could have been seriously injured or even killed.
Finally, one time about 15 years ago, a transient came to our farmhouse, and asked if we had any jobs he could do.

I'm sure there's other stories out there on this subject that would be just as interesting, if not more so.

JesseG 04:15, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Believe it or not, not all who beg are homeless or even neccessarily poor and the article should not have made such a claim.