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Confidence Trickster Gardiner Street

  • 06-01-2016 5:29pm
    #1
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 295 ✭✭


    Wonder if anyone else has encountered this young chap on Gardiner Street.

    Around a month or so ago I was walking home after work up Gardiner Street and a young lad, I'd say around 25ish, quite skinny, scruffy trainers and trackie bottoms, curly light brown/ginger hair, comes up behind me whimpering "Excuse me... excuse me".

    So I turn around and this guy has got tears streaming down his eyes, snot coming out of his nose, seemingly distraught.
    He says his sister is about to die and he needs to get up to some hospital (can't remember which) and he needs some money to get up there. He tells me his name (which I've forgotten) and whips out his passport and insists he is genuine.

    Unfortunately for him I had nothing on me at the time and couldn't give him anything, and when I explained I couldn't help him right now and that I sympathised and thought he was genuine, his attitude became extremely aggressive and began shouting obscenities about him "of course being f*****g genuine" and "he wouldn't effing make this up" etc etc.

    So being the calm individual I am nowadays I told him to stop speaking to me in such a manner, and anyway eventually I walked away feeling a little wounded that I couldn't help him. I was almost going to bring him to my house to calm him down and give him a tenner but after his verbal assault I decided against.

    Anyway fast forward to today and I'm working a late shift today so my 'lunch' hour ended at 5pm and I'm walking back down Gardiner Street after having a bite to eat at home. I notice a woman in a hurry trying to get into her brand new Mercedes with some young lad bent over tapping on the passenger side window, crying and trying to open the passenger side door, which the lady had managed to lock by getting inside and seated before he could.

    Thinking not much of it except that it reminded me of that guy who stopped me recently, I carries on walking down Gardiner Street when I hear a whimpering "Excuse me... excuse me..." coming up behind me and I thought you have got to be kidding me...

    So I turns around and there's the same guy, same tears rolling down his cheeks, same nasal mucus, and he begins with, "I really need some help...", and then when he realises we've met before, he says, "Oh do you remember me from another time?" - still in his whimpering traumatised voice.
    When I said you're damn right I remember you alright, he started saying his sister had died and before he could go on I interrupted him and instead of threatening to call the Gards I just told him I couldn't help him once again, and once again he became very aggressive.

    I've just phoned Pearse Street and reported him and they're sending a car up now. Hope they catch the ****e and I wish I'd have memorised his name from last time!!

    Word of warning to Dubliners!


«13

Comments

  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,204 ✭✭✭fiachr_a


    These people are the reason we should keep those 1 cent coins.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,200 ✭✭✭Arbiter of Good Taste


    Funnily the exact same thing happened to me about 10 years ago in Sydney. Unfortunately on the first occasion I stupidly handed over $20. So naturally I gave her dogs abuse, then grabbed a nearby policeman.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    You'll encounter a blond woman with her arm in a sling in the ladies toilets in Drogheda Hospital on occasion, whose husband is in Beaumont Hospital. She's just broken her arm, and needs money for the bus fare to go see him. He's been in Beaumont years now, and she breaks her arm alarmingly often.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,586 ✭✭✭Canadel


    You'll encounter a blond woman with her arm in a sling in the ladies toilets in Drogheda Hospital on occasion, whose husband is in Beaumont Hospital. She's just broken her arm, and needs money for the bus fare to go see him. He's been in Beaumont years now, and she breaks her arm alarmingly often.
    She's chancing her arm alright.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,197 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    a skinny scrote in a tracksuit in Gardiner St of all places tries to engage you in conversation and a sob story..... just keep on walking... a firm no I'm busy and broke and go away.

    Most convincing one was an English dude in El Prat airport in Barcelona who approached me while I was looking at the FIDS screen before security and engaged me in a sob story that he ****ed up and went to the wrong airport and should have been in Girona. He had no money for the bus transfer back and with Ryanair they wont transfer him FOC if he misses flight etc.. very polite and convincing... i copped on after a couple of minutes quizzing him back... that was two years ago... he came up to me again 3 weeks ago in the same airport.... I was less then polite this time. No time for scammers.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,586 ✭✭✭Canadel


    Strumms wrote: »

    Most convincing one was an English dude in El Prat airport in Barcelona who approached me while I was looking at the FIDS screen before security and engaged me in a sob story that he ****ed up and went to the wrong airport and should have been in Girona. He had no money for the bus transfer back and with Ryanair they wont transfer him FOC if he misses flight etc.. very polite and convincing... i copped on after a couple of minutes quizzing him back... that was two years ago... he came up to me again 3 weeks ago in the same airport.... I was less then polite this time. No time for scammers.
    Sounds like a right prat.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 702 ✭✭✭Simon2015


    Wonder if anyone else has encountered this young chap on Gardiner Street.

    Around a month or so ago I was walking home after work up Gardiner Street and a young lad, I'd say around 25ish, quite skinny, scruffy trainers and trackie bottoms, curly light brown/ginger hair, comes up behind me whimpering "Excuse me... excuse me".

    So I turn around and this guy has got tears streaming down his eyes, snot coming out of his nose, seemingly distraught.
    He says his sister is about to die and he needs to get up to some hospital (can't remember which) and he needs some money to get up there. He tells me his name (which I've forgotten) and whips out his passport and insists he is genuine.

    Unfortunately for him I had nothing on me at the time and couldn't give him anything, and when I explained I couldn't help him right now and that I sympathised and thought he was genuine, his attitude became extremely aggressive and began shouting obscenities about him "of course being f*****g genuine" and "he wouldn't effing make this up" etc etc.

    So being the calm individual I am nowadays I told him to stop speaking to me in such a manner, and anyway eventually I walked away feeling a little wounded that I couldn't help him. I was almost going to bring him to my house to calm him down and give him a tenner but after his verbal assault I decided against.

    Anyway fast forward to today and I'm working a late shift today so my 'lunch' hour ended at 5pm and I'm walking back down Gardiner Street after having a bite to eat at home. I notice a woman in a hurry trying to get into her brand new Mercedes with some young lad bent over tapping on the passenger side window, crying and trying to open the passenger side door, which the lady had managed to lock by getting inside and seated before he could.

    Thinking not much of it except that it reminded me of that guy who stopped me recently, I carries on walking down Gardiner Street when I hear a whimpering "Excuse me... excuse me..." coming up behind me and I thought you have got to be kidding me...

    So I turns around and there's the same guy, same tears rolling down his cheeks, same nasal mucus, and he begins with, "I really need some help...", and then when he realises we've met before, he says, "Oh do you remember me from another time?" - still in his whimpering traumatised voice.
    When I said you're damn right I remember you alright, he started saying his sister had died and before he could go on I interrupted him and instead of threatening to call the Gards I just told him I couldn't help him once again, and once again he became very aggressive.

    I've just phoned Pearse Street and reported him and they're sending a car up now. Hope they catch the ****e and I wish I'd have memorised his name from last time!!

    Word of warning to Dubliners!


    Was the guy a non national ?


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 2,666 Mod ✭✭✭✭TrueDub


    Simon2015 wrote: »
    Was the guy a non national ?

    Why does it matter? A scammer is a scammer.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    You'll encounter a blond woman with her arm in a sling in the ladies toilets in Drogheda Hospital on occasion, whose husband is in Beaumont Hospital. She's just broken her arm, and needs money for the bus fare to go see him. He's been in Beaumont years now, and she breaks her arm alarmingly often.

    Actually if he's in A&E that might be true :D:D:D:D
    Strumms wrote: »
    .......

    Most convincing one was an English dude in El Prat airport in Barcelona who approached me while I was looking at the FIDS screen before security and engaged me in a sob story that he ****ed up and went to the wrong airport and should have been in Girona. He had no money for the bus transfer back and with Ryanair they wont transfer him FOC if he misses flight etc.. very polite and convincing... i copped on after a couple of minutes quizzing him back... that was two years ago... he came up to me again 3 weeks ago in the same airport.... I was less then polite this time. No time for scammers.

    Was there last year and it was a Scottish guy - again very polite, delighted to have found a fellow 'Celt,' lots of patter. I let him witter on and then told him to get lost!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,717 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Reminds me of the time me and my partner were in Mumbai in India getting a flight out of there one week after the train bombings had killed 240 people. The taxi driver was giving us a sob story all the way to the airport about his 10 year old son who was dying from the bomb blast and needed a life saving operation that cost $100 and asking us for the cash. Told the guy if his son was truly dying he'd be at his bedside and not out driving a taxi. Some people will stoop as low as you can go to con a buck.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,347 ✭✭✭LynnGrace


    There used to be a guy at Heuston, needing twenty euro 'to get a bus home'.
    Maybe he finally got there...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 628 ✭✭✭mikekerry


    similar story happpened to me yesterday just off middle abbey st,
    A well dressed and well spoken guy in his mid 20's came up to me upset and said he was robbed and the cops offered to put him up for a night in a homeless hostel but he didn't want to stay there so they said he could stayin the generator hostel in smithfield but he needed 17 euro!
    When I said the generator hostel has a minimum 2 night policy and I wasn't going to hand over 17 euro to someone I didn't know he got agressive similar to the prevoius poster. a strange individual.
    He also showed me a phone which was switched off.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,383 ✭✭✭✭Birneybau


    Simon2015 wrote: »
    Was the guy a non national ?

    If you had read the description...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 22,559 ✭✭✭✭AnonoBoy


    TrueDub wrote: »
    Why does it matter? A scammer is a scammer.

    I presume they were asking because he'll be easier to identify if people know what sort of accent to look out for?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 628 ✭✭✭mikekerry


    the guy I was talking to had more a soutch county dublin accent, around 25,
    dark hair


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 295 ✭✭mattaiuseire


    Yeah the guy was an Irish national, his passport was real and he obviously knew what he was doing.

    Normally I wouldn't care less but after seeing him trying to get into someones car I thought that was stepping over the line.

    When I turned around a minute after he had given up on me, he had already hooked some other poor b@stard in, couldn't hang around to see if any money was given because I had to get back to work.

    What worries me is if some poor old dear is manipulated by him and she ends up giving him money she can't afford. Hope the bobbies catch up with him.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    LynnGrace wrote: »
    There used to be a guy at Heuston, needing twenty euro 'to get a bus home'.
    Maybe he finally got there...

    To get the train to Carlow IIRC! I used to work near there and everyday he'd spin the same story


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,197 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Jawgap wrote: »
    Actually if he's in A&E that might be true :D:D:D:D



    Was there last year and it was a Scottish guy - again very polite, delighted to have found a fellow 'Celt,' lots of patter. I let him witter on and then told him to get lost!

    Could be same dude although I am pretty sure it was an English accent then again they could be working in pairs. Small guy with a beard and a backpack. Like you say, very friendly and engaging and didn't ask for money right up front at the start of conversation. In fairness you could see why one or two people could be taken in he was that good and you don't expect that in an airport really. Not surprising he is still there or they are all these years later.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,969 ✭✭✭Mesrine65


    fiachr_a wrote: »
    These people are the reason we should keep those 1 cent coins.
    Agreed...for putting in a sock & using as a bludgeoning tool on such immoral shysters :mad:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 71,107 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Jawgap wrote: »
    Was there last year and it was a Scottish guy - again very polite, delighted to have found a fellow 'Celt,' lots of patter. I let him witter on and then told him to get lost!

    English guy on the Damrak in Amsterdam approaches people wearing English/Scottish/Irish football jerseys with a sob story about needing to get to the British Embassy in Berlin (why? There's one in Amsterdam) with a "ah, someone who speaks my language!" opening line.

    In Amsterdam, where pretty much the entire native populace speak perfect English with a mid-Atlantic accent...


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 986 ✭✭✭Everlong1


    These toe rags need to be at best ignored utterly and if possible reported to the Guards.

    I have a well practiced routine of marching straight ahead now in the city centre and not making eye contact with anyone. Terrible to have to live like that but that's the times we live in.

    Any mutt who tries to talk to me just gets ignored. Anyone who tried being aggressive with me would get an appropriate response, escalated to physical action if necessary.

    Like all bullies, they will target anyone who appears to be vulnerable or a soft touch.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,925 ✭✭✭RainyDay


    I was buying a bus ticket in Brussels to get to the airport, when a tall guy with a posh English accent came up trying to sell a 'spare' ticket he had mistakenly bought. I hooshed him away.

    When I got to the airport, the same guy was greeting folks getting off the bus with 'Would you mind if I take your used ticket there'.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,717 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Everlong1 wrote: »
    These toe rags need to be at best ignored utterly and if possible reported to the Guards.

    I have a well practiced routine of marching straight ahead now in the city centre and not making eye contact with anyone. Terrible to have to live like that but that's the times we live in.

    Any mutt who tries to talk to me just gets ignored. Anyone who tried being aggressive with me would get an appropriate response, escalated to physical action if necessary.

    Like all bullies, they will target anyone who appears to be vulnerable or a soft touch.

    I'm the same, I'll stop for no-one in the city centre. I smoke sometimes when walking and the amount of scrotes some days who try to scab a cigarette from you can be unreal. I always have white earphones in my ears so just pretend I didn't hear them and keep walking. It's the best way imo.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 702 ✭✭✭Simon2015


    I remember a few years ago there was an Irish guy in Dublin City centre who use to stop people and say that his girlfriend had just had a bady and that he needed money to get to the hospital.

    I gave him 2 Euro but he wasn't happy and asked me for more money. I told him thats all I had on me and walked off.

    These days when someone comes up to me asking for money I just say "no sorry" and keep walking.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 295 ✭✭mattaiuseire


    It's easy to ignore people in the bustling city centre but when you're a little out of the way and someone is literally following you, intent on invading your personal space and won't stop until you acknowledge them, then it's a little more difficult.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,431 ✭✭✭MilesMorales1


    Thats the oldest scam in the book OP. I've been seeing that in Dublin for years, remember in 2010 a chap came up to me just like you said, asked me for cash cos his pregnant sister was in the back of an undisclosed van and he needed to get her to newcastle hospital. Best to just keep walking.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 957 ✭✭✭Arrow in the Knee


    I was in Navan one evening and a lad in his 30's or 40's stopped me saying he needed some money for the bus to Dublin as his brother was in a car crash and needed to get to the hospital while smelling of alcohol.

    All I said was sorry can't help.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 753 ✭✭✭Roselm


    LynnGrace wrote: »
    There used to be a guy at Heuston, needing twenty euro 'to get a bus home'.
    Maybe he finally got there...

    I met a very similar kid on Talbot Street near Connolly Station.Very convincing unfortunately and I gave him a few quid.Kicking myself when he came up to me again a week later


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,347 ✭✭✭LynnGrace


    Roselm wrote: »
    I met a very similar kid on Talbot Street near Connolly Station.Very convincing unfortunately and I gave him a few quid.Kicking myself when he came up to me again a week later

    The guy I encountered at Heuston, was very plausible, probably in his thirties, or thereabouts. I think it was a bus to Limerick, he claimed to need the twenty euro for. I just said No. He went on to approach others, but nobody entertained his request. I don't travel to Heuston now, but he could well be still there, trying it on.


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  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators Posts: 12,513 Mod ✭✭✭✭miamee


    I used to often see a woman with an empty buggy on Wicklow Street looking for money for bread for her babies. She's a bit too old to pass herself off as having babies these days and I haven't seen her in a while.

    Another one was a young wan who, like in the OP, would be crying and snotting on Grafton St asking people to please help her. 5 days a week, like. I never stop for people like that now, which is a shame because some day someone genuine might need help and I'll be flying past saying "No, sorry love".


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,045 ✭✭✭✭gramar


    I got the bus from Dublin down the the country a couple of years ago. A traveller and his missus and child got on. After a while the fella walks down the aisle sitting in beside a couple of people on their own to spin a story and wangle some easy money of which he got none. He then landed in beside me..blah blah blah..going to Waterford but no money to get to Kilmacthomas. I told him he was wasting his time and off he went.

    The bus then stopped in Kilcullen and miraculously pulling money out of somewhere he got off to stock up on fizzy drinks, taytos and chocolate bars keeping the whole bus waiting in the process. They then went as far as Carlow when they all got off. Complete cock and bull story from start to finish
    and he clearly couldn’t care less who knew.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,045 ✭✭✭✭gramar


    The worst I’ve seen but probably best from the scammers perspective was T4 in Madrid…a distraught “Argentinian” telling people she had missed her flight and needed cash for another to Buenos Aires. I was with a colleague and
    we both told her no but were left amazed when within no more than 2 minutes she received cash from two different fellas after giving them her sob story.

    I saw her again a few months later doing the same and told her to f off and early last year sitting by a window counting cash in a corner more than 3 years on from when I’d seen her first.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,028 ✭✭✭gidget


    I used to often see a woman with an empty buggy on Wicklow Street looking for money for bread for her babies. She's a bit too old to pass herself off as having babies these days and I haven't seen her in a while.

    I know who your talking about, she can also be found standing outside Brown Thomas too, has black hair. She has a colleague who can be found up at stephens green sprouting the same.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 141 ✭✭getaroom


    There was a guy wandering around Donnybrook at Christmas, crying, snottynose etc., saying that he needed urgent help, apparently he was invited to a party in Wanderers and was short a euro for a bottle of Dom Pérignon.

    I think he was a chancer.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,564 ✭✭✭quad_red


    LynnGrace wrote: »
    The guy I encountered at Heuston, was very plausible, probably in his thirties, or thereabouts. I think it was a bus to Limerick, he claimed to need the twenty euro for. I just said No. He went on to approach others, but nobody entertained his request. I don't travel to Heuston now, but he could well be still there, trying it on.

    Got done on Park Gate street well over ten years ago. Guy was in tears, on the phone, offered to put me onto his sick wife in Beaumont. Had just seen some sad miserable ****e in the IFI and he couldn't have got me at a better time.

    A few weeks later he marched over to me with phone in hand and realised at the last second he'd tapped me up already and did a 180 turn.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,108 ✭✭✭boombang


    There's a lady that walks around the streets off Grafton St pitifully crying from doorways, "please help me". She's been around as long as I've been in Dublin (15 years+). Sometimes she has children with her (which sickens me). I'm know this is habitual scamming, but I've often wondered what sort of home she comes in from each day.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,981 ✭✭✭KomradeBishop


    If someone comes up to you like this, just interrupt whatever they're saying with "sorry, no spare change" or such, and keep walking. If they act aggressive, just laugh and say something like "sorry, not going to work..." - they'll realize pretty quickly they're wasting their time.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 116 ✭✭Noise Annoys


    Wonder if anyone else has encountered this young chap on Gardiner Street.

    Around a month or so ago etc....

    The exact same thing happened to me a couple of weeks before Christmas, up on Berkley Street, near the Mater Hospital. It was definitely the same guy, your description is spot on. He spun me some story about his sister dying the day before, and he couldn't access his bank account through the ATM so he needed someone to get him cash, blah blah blah.

    Like yourself I listened and said I couldn't help. And then he got p!ssed off, muttering something as he walked off.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,205 ✭✭✭✭hmmm


    I hate that, if I'm ever in real trouble and need help it's going to be more difficult because of people like him scamming.

    I have had the "I've no money for a bus ticket home" guy once or twice. Well dressed, well spoken. Knowing full well it was a scam I offered to walk him to Busarus and buy home one, but apparently he needs to buy it himself.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,969 ✭✭✭hardCopy


    "I just need €2 for a hostel" is the usual one I hear.

    I once got some convoluted story from a man and a woman about how her father had thrown them both out of his house and she was pregnant.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,327 ✭✭✭Speedsie
    ¡arriba, arriba! ¡andale, andale!


    hmmm wrote: »
    I hate that, if I'm ever in real trouble and need help it's going to be more difficult because of people like him scamming

    This.

    My mother was in town before Christmas and got separated from the people she was with. No mobile. Took an hour to get someone who would make a call for her.
    At that stage she was so distressed she couldn't remember any numbers.
    The guy who stopped for her googled my name & place of work so could call me & I called her friends

    But I agree, far too many scanners out there.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Someone in genuine need will usually be asking for help, and not money.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,327 ✭✭✭Speedsie
    ¡arriba, arriba! ¡andale, andale!


    Someone in genuine need will usually be asking for help, and not money.

    As my mother was, not looking for money just assistance. And she was also well dressed and polite.

    Took an hour for someone to stop.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,966 ✭✭✭✭syklops


    hardCopy wrote: »
    "I just need €2 for a hostel" is the usual one I hear.

    I once got some convoluted story from a man and a woman about how her father had thrown them both out of his house and she was pregnant.

    I was a euro short for my bus there just before christmas. So I walked. I couldnt imagine myself saying out loud to strangers "Can I have a euro or any change you have?".

    Its a sad state of affairs, because if people werent bombarded with being asked for change all the time, Im sure someone would have been happy to help me out.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,817 ✭✭✭✭Dord


    Simon2015 wrote: »
    Was the guy a non national ?

    Yes, he has no nationality... of any country in the world. :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 494 ✭✭The Gibzilla


    Wonder if anyone else has encountered this young chap on Gardiner Street.

    Around a month or so ago I was walking home after work up Gardiner Street and a young lad, I'd say around 25ish, quite skinny, scruffy trainers and trackie bottoms, curly light brown/ginger hair, comes up behind me whimpering "Excuse me... excuse me".

    So I turn around and this guy has got tears streaming down his eyes, snot coming out of his nose, seemingly distraught.
    He says his sister is about to die and he needs to get up to some hospital (can't remember which) and he needs some money to get up there. He tells me his name (which I've forgotten) and whips out his passport and insists he is genuine.

    Unfortunately for him I had nothing on me at the time and couldn't give him anything, and when I explained I couldn't help him right now and that I sympathised and thought he was genuine, his attitude became extremely aggressive and began shouting obscenities about him "of course being f*****g genuine" and "he wouldn't effing make this up" etc etc.

    So being the calm individual I am nowadays I told him to stop speaking to me in such a manner, and anyway eventually I walked away feeling a little wounded that I couldn't help him. I was almost going to bring him to my house to calm him down and give him a tenner but after his verbal assault I decided against.

    Anyway fast forward to today and I'm working a late shift today so my 'lunch' hour ended at 5pm and I'm walking back down Gardiner Street after having a bite to eat at home. I notice a woman in a hurry trying to get into her brand new Mercedes with some young lad bent over tapping on the passenger side window, crying and trying to open the passenger side door, which the lady had managed to lock by getting inside and seated before he could.

    Thinking not much of it except that it reminded me of that guy who stopped me recently, I carries on walking down Gardiner Street when I hear a whimpering "Excuse me... excuse me..." coming up behind me and I thought you have got to be kidding me...

    So I turns around and there's the same guy, same tears rolling down his cheeks, same nasal mucus, and he begins with, "I really need some help...", and then when he realises we've met before, he says, "Oh do you remember me from another time?" - still in his whimpering traumatised voice.
    When I said you're damn right I remember you alright, he started saying his sister had died and before he could go on I interrupted him and instead of threatening to call the Gards I just told him I couldn't help him once again, and once again he became very aggressive.

    I've just phoned Pearse Street and reported him and they're sending a car up now. Hope they catch the ****e and I wish I'd have memorised his name from last time!!

    Word of warning to Dubliners!

    I saw this piece of filth last night. Similar to the OP, I was approached previously by this guy who was sniffling and crying, saying "excuse me, excuse me..." and then going on about how his sister had passed away and he needed to get back to Cavan. He proceeded to show me a passport and actually offered me his phone in exchange for cash. Luckily, I hadn't been to an atm yet and had nothing on me to give him. Similar to the OP, he became quite frustrated and I actually began feeling quite guilty for not being able to help, I ended up walking off and he was throwing obscenities at me.

    Yesterday I was browsing Boards and stumbled upon this thread. Immediately, I knew the guy the OP was talking about. Coincidentally, last night, my father, sister and I were visiting a sick relative in the Mater hospital. We were going in through the Eccles Street entrance, when I hear "excuse me, excuse me..." in a sniffling voice. I told my family to keep moving, he was nothing but a fake and scumbag. My father told me he'd seen the guy a few times before hassling people at their cars, he actually told me upon the second time of being approached by the guy, my father told him "f@ck you and your sister" which made me laugh. Again, as we walked on, he began shouting obscenities.

    It was quite dark, so I couldn't see him completely clearly, but he was tall, lean, wearing one of those hunting hats with two floppy bits, which cover both ears, a black jacket and it looked like his eyes were pointing in different directions.

    I was unable to call the Gardai at the time, as we needed to get into the Mater quickly, but make people aware of this guy if you can. He seems to be around the Gardiner Street, Dorset Street, Bolton Street, Mater Hospital area.

    It's quite deplorable, doing this near a hospital where people who are emotionally vulnerable can be found. Most likely, if you've visited someone in there, who's quite ill or terminal, then there's a good chance you'll hand over money to this shyster.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,969 ✭✭✭Mesrine65


    It's easy to ignore people in the bustling city centre but when you're a little out of the way and someone is literally following you, intent on invading your personal space and won't stop until you acknowledge them, then it's a little more difficult.
    An aggressively toned FUCK OFF works for me :eek:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 123 ✭✭Clone


    I encountered the same bloke as the OP in Smithfield. Yesterday, I was just out of work and in a rush.

    He was looking for Taxi fare to get to Drogheda Our Lady of Lourdes hospital.
    Same thing he was offering all his worldly possesions to get there for is dying/dead sister.

    As I was going to Connolly I offered to buy him a train ticket or bus ticket.
    He seemed to hesitate at this point but then produced some cash saying he got some money from other people and was just short and really wanted to get there quickly in a Taxi.

    Unfortuantely for me I handed over a fiver :mad: . I had more on me but was still mulling things over in my head while he continually put pressure on me, more snivelling and cries for help.

    If you encounter this guy, take his phone and passport!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 448 ✭✭gerarda


    'Excuse me, excuse me...! 'Your excused! /keeps walking


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 418 ✭✭Confucius say


    boombang wrote: »
    There's a lady that walks around the streets off Grafton St pitifully crying from doorways, "please help me". She's been around as long as I've been in Dublin (15 years+). Sometimes she has children with her (which sickens me). I'm know this is habitual scamming, but I've often wondered what sort of home she comes in from each day.

    I can't stand that woman. She's a traveller. She's been knocking around this area for ages (I work on those streets). I've been on the bus with her before, the 140 to Finglas, she counted out about 120 euro in coins, she was with her daughter. They got out at LIDL and were collected by more travellers in a van.
    I can't believe the Garda let her go in day in day out and scam people. If she's known to us surely the bloody authorities know who she is.
    She came up to me a while ago and I said "You live in Finglas don't you" and she got all defensive saying "I've kids to feed" etc. Her kids must be in their 20s by now!
    The robbing cow should be arrested any time she sets foot in the centre.


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