Police: Oregon panhandlers raking in the green
COOS BAY, Ore. - A police survey says panhandlers outside Wal-Mart in Coos Bay can make $300 a day. Inside, it takes a clerk a week to make that much.
Police say people who have a problem with that needn't look to the law - asking for money is considered protected free speech.
Coos Bay authorities say most panhandlers are not criminals.
Coos Bay Police Captain Rodger Craddock says most have lived in the city a long time and they actually have homes. Craddock says, "This is just their chosen profession."
He says most are docile, and that people should report those who are not.
Bob More, director of housing and emergency services at South Coast Community Action, says many panhandlers are there for the money - to feed their addictions.
He suggested a voucher system involving tickets people could give that are good for a meal or bed in a shelter.
Police say people who have a problem with that needn't look to the law - asking for money is considered protected free speech.
Coos Bay authorities say most panhandlers are not criminals.
Coos Bay Police Captain Rodger Craddock says most have lived in the city a long time and they actually have homes. Craddock says, "This is just their chosen profession."
He says most are docile, and that people should report those who are not.
Bob More, director of housing and emergency services at South Coast Community Action, says many panhandlers are there for the money - to feed their addictions.
He suggested a voucher system involving tickets people could give that are good for a meal or bed in a shelter.
there are paid pan handlers all over seattle who get dropped off and picked up every day. someone is running a business by employing people to collect money. saw a guy at 14th nw and leary put money into a manila envelope and write down the amount on the envelope and latter in the day got picked up in a blue van. must be Homeless inc.
As long as they are not committing Welfare fraud by getting public assistance and not reporting the money people give them.
Why did it take five years for them to post this? This is a new low even for KOMO
The people are no different than the politicians. The rubes want to throw money at them so they will take it. As long as you have morons with cash willing to toss it too them you will have some willing to take it.
These people should be filing an income tax form for all of their "self-employment" income. I'm retired and still have to pay income tax on my pension and some of my social security. These people also aren't making payments into the social security system either but should be. I never give to panhandlers. If they are able to stand on a street corner for hours at a time there is no reason they can't work or get training to get a job.
People are too gullible and believe the sob stories and pathetic signs with tales of whoa so they hand over $$ to these scammers who are doing it as a job.  The worst are the ones who you see doing it day after day for years.  I am sorry but no ones that unlucky and down and out.  They are nothing but con artists and Seattle has a lot of them thanks to our mayor and his veto of a bill to crack down on the ramp[ant and epidemic panhandling downtown..
When I was a young adult in the late 70's I never saw young healthy people pan handling in Seattle, I knew I'd rather starve than beg money off strangers, it was considered shameful. Today you have young people living at home with their parents well into their 30's and every good corner in the U district or freeway off ramp you have some kid in their 20's begging for money. There is a pretty young women at one corner who is a regular with her bus fare or work for food sign and I know she brings home a good living because lots of guys stop and give give her money hoping for more. It's annoying because she holds up traffic at that corner during rush hour.
so lessee...poor people 'raking in the green' is big news, but obscene profit, slave wages, prison labor, and class warfare...none of that is news? This article is from 2008. Why is it a fresh story now? Why is corporate welfare not the real news?
@wub just like handing over money to a stranger you have the right not to and you have the right not to shop at slave labor box stores.
I wonder how a "police survey" works. Personally I wouldn't take anyone's word on this. I suppose someone could actually try it and see. Spend a day and beg, sounds like easy money lolsigh...
 I guess the real story is it takes a WEEK for a Walmart employee to earn $300?!? Didn't we just read how Walmart clear over $700 BILLION last quarter, a 5.7 percent increase in profits? While their employees must take welfare and food stamps to survive?!? The REAL CRIME is how we subsidize these obscene corporate profits.
Some BUMS have zero respecttÂ
I bust my sorry butt to only have everybody favorite uncle take it away and this guy gets to sit on his butt and dosen't have to give anything to the goverment at all how is this fair
@Scrappy You are looking at the wrong end of the economic spectrum if you are concerned about things being unfair.
@ScrappyThen why don't you panhandle then? Problem solved.
The best scam ever is an early 20's guy or girl, have a sign showing how they need "bus money" to get home. Â Start the sign off with like $100, put an x through it, work down to about $40.
Most EVERYONE will stop and not only give you money, they usually give $5 to $10 and several will give you the "final" $40 you need to "get home".
I've heard of "students" making over $500 a day doing this.
Really only works if you are young, cute, and can pull off the "I just want to see my sick mother" routine. Â Or, do it around the holidays.
@John Kiefer It is not much of a scam as we are all in on it.
Seriously people. STOP giving money to panhandlers. PERIOD. They are scam artists. Â Most people cluelessly believe that these folks are "homeless." Usually they are nothing of the sort. It's a business, run by bosses who get a cut. I've seen a man in a newer cadillac, sitting in his car in a parking lot writing out cardboard signs to hand out to the beggars. Â They actually have shifts, and one guy walks away and hands the sign to the other one. Â I've even seen a changing of the guard, where one guy walks up and takes a seat in a wheelchair, and the other guy walks away.
My favorite is the women... notice how their hair is ALWAYS touched up? No roots showing at all. Â They also have new shoes, nice coats, etc. Â Never. EVER. EVER. give money to anyone on the street. EVER. Â Seriously. Give it to a program that actually helps people. Â Â These people are making money tax-free.Â
@DT When I hear that line about "I need to buy formula for my baby" I tell them every time, I don't have cash, just a plastic card. Not one of them ever asks me to buy it with that.
@DT There are people asking for money all day long. Don't condemn just because they don't wear a suit. Folks give because they want to give. There is no law (except God's law) that says you must be generous. Just be grateful there are a so many opportunities to test your faith and values.
@DTÂ If you care about people who scam then you are looking at the wrong people. There is nothing wrong with helping pan handlers. The idea that they are just scamming you is sad.
It is the other end of the economic spectrum that is scamming the system and not paying their fair share of taxes.
@SSam This "fair share"of which you speak. Could you give us a hard percentage number that would satisfy you? 30%%, 39%%, 42%%, 50%%, 100%%? Just pick a number so we know what the h#// you're talking about.
@SSam @DT I always ask  the panhandlers for money. I used to ask them for smokes when I smoked.
Funny, THEY never seem to cough it up. Don't they care about ME?
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@Michelle Ford Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce to you the American school system.