Galveston: Interview with a grifter

[seamusTX]

For the younger members of our audience, a grifter is a sociopathic criminal with no fixed residence. Grifters prefer to commit con games, particularly with women as victims. However, most will commit any opportunistic crime that they think they can get away with.

So, I was mowing my lawn this afternoon. A man, white, maybe around 30 years old approached me. He was clean-cut and had no prison tats or anything that was an obvious indication of trouble.

He was carrying a half-smoked unlit cigarette. Call that strike one.

He said (paraphrasing) that the lady who lived here said he could do some yard work. I asked him what color her hair was. He said maybe it wasn't this specific house. Strike two.

Then he launched into a spiel about how he was an Iraq-war veteran, out of work, and hadn't had anything to eat or drink for days. I pointed out the hose on the side of our house and said he could help himself. He started to speak more aggressively, and I said, "I think you need to be moving down the road." Which he did.

The entire time, I had a set of 6-inch lawn shears in my hand, which I was using to cut nuisance vines and not displaying in a threatening manner.

I'd give the guy the double cajones award for persistence combined with knowing when he was at a dead end.

- Jim

[gthaustex]

Were your Spidey senses tingling. Good situational awareness and kudos on the question back at him. The sad thing is that he will keep drifting until he finds someone that isn't as wary as you were. Bingo....next victim of whatever he had planned.

[JALLEN]

I'd give the guy the double cajones award for persistence combined with knowing when he was at a dead end.

- Jim

Those guys learn to live by their wits, even if they only have half of them.

[RoyGBiv]

What did the local Leo's say when you called them?

[seamusTX]

Were your Spidey senses tingling[?]

Actually, not at high alert. I figured he was a scam artist, not a physical threat.

What did the local Leo's say when you called them?

I didn't call the cops. The actor did nothing illegal. It's perfectly legal to "solicit business" or beg. Politicians do both all the time.

My only regret is that I didn't pull out my cell phone and take a photo of him. If I had, he'd probably be in another county now. But then he would just be the same problem in a different neighborhood.

This guy is the perfect "gray man"—which is a characteristic of grifters. I can only say he is a Caucasian male, around 30, light brown hair, no tats, facial piercings, or scars, probably a Southern accent—but that can be faked or acquired. (My brother-in-law, who grew up in Chicago, spent 20 years in the Navy and speaks like he grew up in Louisiana now.)

- Jim

[RoyGBiv]

There's no reason you could not call the local LE (non emergency number or 911) to report a suspicious person.

In my neighborhood any solicitor is required to register with the city and wear a permit. If someone is soliciting past my "No Soliciting" sign I ask to see their permit and then I ask to see their eyeglasses (because they can't read the sign). I've called the local LE several times on folks ringing my doorbell without a permit. I give the folks with a permit a reminder that they are in violation of their permit ringing past a no soliciting sign.

In this case it wasn't simply solicitation... maybe you felt genuinely bad for the guy... but whatever happened, it caused you to be concerned.. That, by itself, is enough reason to have the police come out and check the guy out.

Just my opinion. Worth what you paid for it.

[seamusTX]

There's no reason you could not call the local LE (non emergency number or 911) to report a suspicious person.

You're quite right. The community service officer actually thanked me a year or so ago for calling about a real thug who seemed to resent the fact that I pointed my eyeballs at him when he was doing some kind of Chinese fire drill in front of my house.

This particular specimen seemed more low-grade. As I said, he did nothing illegal. As a small-L libertarian, I do not want to make talking to people on the street illegal.

- Jim