Door to door begging

RaRaRasputin · 20-05-2012 05:11PM #1

I hope this thread doesn't exist yet, at least I couldn't find any existing one on this topic.
Does anyone else live in an area where people frequently ring your door bell begging for money? I moved within Dublin last year and I am getting quite annoyed with the number of people who turn up at our house pretending to be from some sort of charity organisation or being illiterate and thus incapable of working. In the case of the "charity worker" the person at the door was a toothless guy in a tracksuit who reeked of alcohol and turned quite aggressive when we refused any donations. The illiterate counterpart was not aggressive but has been to our house twice within a couple of months, and it is actually getting quite annoying.
I have heard about the anti-begging laws regarding public begging around ATMs and shops, but never heard of any restrictions about door to door begging? Does anyone know if I can ring the police when bogus collectors turn up or are they within their rights to annoy me?

PCPhoto · 20-05-2012 05:13PM

jebus .... just invite the guy in ...cuppa tea.... sandwich and open your wallet ...ya miser

(hate them and soooo glad I dont live in Dublin....I nearly caught poor off one of them once !!)

Pedant · 20-05-2012 05:16PM

I don't know if begging should be illegal. However, if you don't want to give them money I think you have every right just to tell them to get the fuck off your property before you call the Gardaí because they're trespassing.

FatherLen · 20-05-2012 05:16PM

i live in dublin and i haven't seen this in years. i lived in kildare for a good few years and saw it more there but that was maybe 5 years ago.

stovelid · 20-05-2012 05:17PM

Photocopy a load of tenners on coloured paper to hand out to them.

Or answer the door knaked and holding a carving knife but act politely while fixing them with deranged stares.

forfuxsake · 20-05-2012 05:17PM

what would Jesus do?

criticalcritic · 20-05-2012 05:18PM

I live in Dublin and grew up in Cabra and never heard of people knocking at doors asking for money.
I think your mistaking people collecting for charity who sometimes look worse for wear but doesnt make them bad people, theur certainly not looking for free money

Sounds like anti-Dub bias to me

Dont worry love we're not all thieves and beggers like some of the stories you probably heard in the cow shed growing up

Lapin · 20-05-2012 05:19PM

forfuxsake wrote: »

what would Jesus do?

Whatever that two faced prick does, I'll do the complete opposite.

golden lane · 20-05-2012 05:19PM

forfuxsake wrote: »

what would Jesus do?

do they have beggars in mexico...????

mikemac1 · 20-05-2012 05:21PM

Why would you answer the door anyway?

I answer my door for nobody unless I'm expecting someone and they can ring ahead

If it's an emergency well they can shout for help but otherwise they will be ignored

Smithey88 · 20-05-2012 05:21PM

I do get the same. People knocking on doors claiming to be from some random charity, or better yet the ones from the 'war on drugs campaign' - always some skanger dude with a tracksuit on. Often not even willing to buy a clipboard to complete the con.

Lazy conmen these days I tell ya :pac:

darragh16 · 20-05-2012 05:26PM

A deaf fella knocked at the door one time with a little card written out begging for money. I mouthed no and shook me head. He persisted and I kept shaking me head and started to close the door.

Me older brother then came to the door while your man down the drive way and roared "Here, how much are ye looking for?" Then deaf beggar then turned back around and start walking back up but then stopped knowing he f*cked up and walked off!

Then when he was at a house a few doors down, he roared down "He's not really deaf" and the chap looked around at us again. He was obviously new at the whole thing. We had a great laugh with it though!

mattjack · 20-05-2012 05:29PM

RaRaRasputin wrote: »

I hope this thread doesn't exist yet, at least I couldn't find any existing one on this topic.
Does anyone else live in an area where people frequently ring your door bell begging for money? I moved within Dublin last year and I am getting quite annoyed with the number of people who turn up at our house pretending to be from some sort of charity organisation or being illiterate and thus incapable of working. In the case of the "charity worker" the person at the door was a toothless guy in a tracksuit who reeked of alcohol and turned quite aggressive when we refused any donations. The illiterate counterpart was not aggressive but has been to our house twice within a couple of months, and it is actually getting quite annoying.
I have heard about the anti-begging laws regarding public begging around ATMs and shops, but never heard of any restrictions about door to door begging? Does anyone know if I can ring the police when bogus collectors turn up or are they within their rights to annoy me?

Ring the police, though they might want a bit of spare change too..

I dunno , maybe have a dump on your doorstep or leave a dead cat on your drive way.

mikemac1 · 20-05-2012 05:29PM

RaRaRasputin wrote: »

Does anyone know if I can ring the police when bogus collectors turn up or are they within their rights to annoy me?

Yes you can

They need a permit

They won't do anything just on your call but if all your neighbours are calling the station too then they'll step in

Biggins · 20-05-2012 05:33PM

I get someone calling to my door at least twice a week asking for money.
I politely tell them (the first time) "No thanks" - after that, if they call back - and some actually do weeks later, I get stronger in expression.
The wife when she answers the door and finds there there begging again, just calls for me to deal with them.
I do.

suicide_circus · 20-05-2012 05:35PM

"tinkers", as they were known, used to call round to my parents gaf and ask in hushed tones for "a little help, ma'am" from my mother. They used to accept food and bits & bobs by way of help as well as cash. Then the next traveller generation shunned anything but hard cash donations and eventually stopped coming. Then Roma started begging at the home of an elderly relative, very aggressive, shouting through the letter box and banging on the door if he didnt answer. They did that when I was visiting once, the young girls cursing at my relative through the letterbox, I rushed out and told them to leave. Their male minder squared up to me, I'm not big or tough or in any way intimidating but I flipped out, making some outrageous threats and they ****ed off.

little swift · 20-05-2012 05:36PM

tell them nothing give the nothing and move them on.and if they knock again ring the garda because my hunch is they are casing the area to see if there is anybody home and if there no one home. well then ya know the rest of the story.

mikemac1 · 20-05-2012 05:39PM

suicide_circus wrote: »

"tinkers", as they were known, used to call round to my parents gaf and ask in hushed tones for "a little help, ma'am" from my mother. They used to accept food and bits & bobs by way of help as well as cash.

Yep, decent folk
And if you had a farm and wanted something metal fixed they were very skilled and could fix it up good as new.
They were poor and needed good relations with the locals

The current boyos seems to have plently.
Give them welfare and it becomes an entitlement and won't give a fook about people in their area, give them a lobby group and they'll call discrimination on anyone.
Shut down the rural garda stations and robberies will shoot up

revz · 20-05-2012 05:40PM

criticalcritic wrote: »

I live in Dublin and grew up in Cabra and never heard of people knocking at doors asking for money.
I think your mistaking people collecting for charity who sometimes look worse for wear but doesnt make them bad people, theur certainly not looking for free money

Sounds like anti-Dub bias to me

Dont worry love we're not all thieves and beggers like some of the stories you probably heard in the cow shed growing up

Funny you should mention Cabra, I was there in my friends just last week and two roma gypsy women knocked on the door....he shouted for his mam to go to the door and I was saying he should just say she's not in and close the door and he said "no we give them money every week"; I was asking him why and he said "I dno, we just always have." So I saw it happening anywho.

I haven't had any beggars call in to our house, just charity folk/people selling me sky or airtricity or something, which has increased so much in the last while that I've stopped answering the door.

kylith · 20-05-2012 05:40PM

I've never had anyone just begging, but I do get the odd one looking to sell me carpets. They like to send people with Down's Syndrome to the door, looking for the sympathy sell, which I think is scummy in the extreme. A simple "no" and a door shut in the face seems to work.

Mance Rayder · 20-05-2012 05:41PM

Sorry to hijack the thread but I have had a recent similar experience;
A man and a woman knocked on my door with clipboards. The man explained he was collecting for drug rehabilitation clinics in the inner city and outreach programs and the like. I said fair enough and asked him for ID and registered charity number. He showed me an ID card of sorts but said he doesn't have a registered charity number, that he works for a private company. I asked if private company's were permitted to raise funds in this manner and of course he said yes. Does anyone know if this is true? Shouldn't they require a registered charity number or something?

hairyprincess · 20-05-2012 05:41PM

I remember in a place I worked in in Dublin about 12 years ago, this woman came to the door, (it was a place you had to ring a bell to get access to). She was I'd say mid fifties or so, well dressed and Irish, she was by no means a skanger. She wanted money because her bag had been robbed she said. My boss gave her £20 and she went on her way, I never saw her again.

But what struck me was, we were quite close to Store Street Garda station; why didn't she go there? And why did she choose my place of work, there were lots of other easily accessible places such as pubs and shops.

Folk are strange

Biggins · 20-05-2012 05:41PM

Now if they used a bit of originality...

http://www.nowthatsnifty.com/2009/07/funny-homless-beggar-signs.html#.T7keDNxDz08

Battered Mars Bar · 20-05-2012 05:45PM

Live in a rural area where the GAA cronies are constantly harassing people for money door to door. The local town fools that have somehow elevated themselves above the other village idiots that come looking for money for this that and the other...nothing small now mind, we're taking 20 quid a pop. Of course everyone gets guilted into paying, small rural area where the village idiots have nothing better to do than gossip about an upstart who won't oblige in lining the pockets of some middleaged overweight GAA knobend driving around in a merc with his cronies.

MisterEpicurus · 20-05-2012 05:46PM

All these tramps should be hired by some council body, and work as a unit to clean a particularly filthy area of town, preferably the area they made filthy. Then they are paid 1 euro a day, so they can buy a cheese burger in McDonalds. By eating all these burgers everyday, they'll hopefully develop obesity and diabetes. Then they die, without reproducing, and all tramps have been removed from society.

Archeron · 20-05-2012 05:55PM

Invite them in, lock them in the basement and when you have a big enough group, film your own version of a scabby wretched come dine with me. Sell the tape to tv3 and everyone is happy.

LisaLee · 20-05-2012 05:58PM

I don't like answering the door if I'm alone in the house, so I either check and see who it is out the upstairs window, or bring our lovely Rottie to the door to see who the visitor is

Muir · 20-05-2012 06:00PM

If they are genuinely from a charity they should have ID. You can ring the gardai and report them, I know of someone who was arrested for begging door to door pretending to be from a charity.

Someone said above about a man who pretended to be deaf, this used to happen in my area too. He would beg on the street though, not door to door, but it turned out he was going to the betting shop with the money & wasn't really deaf.

hellyeah · 20-05-2012 06:43PM

mikemac1 wrote: »

Why would you answer the door anyway?

I answer my door for nobody unless I'm expecting someone and they can ring ahead

If it's an emergency well they can shout for help but otherwise they will be ignored

as above i never answer the door. its only ever for money or bord gais, electric ireland etc. If its someone i know they will have my number and
ring me.

Br4tPr1nc3 · 20-05-2012 07:16PM

Muir wrote: »

If they are genuinely from a charity they should have ID. You can ring the gardai and report them, I know of someone who was arrested for begging door to door pretending to be from a charity.

this is almost right, if they are genuine, they will have a genuine id which will have their name, address, supervisors name and number, aswell as the charity's info such as charity number.

they also HAVE to have the charity's permit, which states what the charity is allowed to do in order to collect, such as street collecting, door to door and what not.

if they "weren't given a permit or lost it, dont need one" then you can bet they're fake.
ask for the permit rather than the id.
the id can be easily faked.

AnonoBoy · 20-05-2012 07:51PM

Personally I'm very happy with this new door to door service. For too long I've had to go into town for my begging needs to be fulfilled.

Door to door begging

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