T & P
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I meant to post this last night but didn't have a chance at the end.
Yesterday evening I went into Tesco (yeah I now...) and on my way out I took out some cash from the cash machine kiosk just outside the entrance. As I put my card in a woman approached me. I heard the expected "excuse me" and prepared to hear the subsequent "can you help, I'm so and so".
Only she said "I've been assaulted and robbed and need money for a travelcard". I looked up and saw she had dried blood over her nose (or what looked like dried blood anyway- it was smeared over the nose rather than coming from inside it) and one of her hands was very dirty and had a bit of what looked like dried blood as well.
My instant reaction was to ask 'are you alright' and she said yes but she needed to get home and could she have some money. I immediately reached in my pocket and gave her all the loose change I had- about £1.70 or so. She took it but didn't even look at it and was clearly after a banknote. "I need at least £4.40 please, I'll give you my name and address". At that juncture I felt really bad but my gut feeling told me something was quite not right so I told her the money I was taking out was not mine, (which happened to be the truth anyway, and in any case I could not afford to hand out £10 at the moment) and that loose change is all I could afford. She then become rather insistent that I gave her more money please, at which point I said 'I'm sorry I can't' and walked off.
As I walked to the bike I was a bit shaken and feeling like a right bastard. Had I just rejected to help someone who had just been beaten and mugged? But then as I rode past on my way out I saw her patiently hanging by the cash machine again, and not looking in any kind of distress. When I told my girlfriend of the incident she said she's seen a woman who fits her description- mid 20s, slightly 'hippy looking' clothes- doing a similar thing at the Barclays cash machine in the past.
I'm now 95% sure she just told me a fancy story and that she was just a con artist, but I still feel really bad that I might have refused help to a genuine victim. Then again I should have thought more clearly and offer to walk her inside and ask the security guards to call the police. Surely someone who's been beaten and mugged would be calling an ambulance or the police rather than hanging around by cash machines in a supermarket?
If she's indeed a con artist I don't particularly mind losing some loose change to her, but I'd fucking hate being manipulated like that and handing over a tenner- of which I wouldn't have expected to ask change back from the £4.40 or so she needed to be honest- and then feel like a muppet for months afterwards. And yet I can't stop thinking she might have been genuine after all- though the more I think of it the unlikely it appears.
Yesterday evening I went into Tesco (yeah I now...) and on my way out I took out some cash from the cash machine kiosk just outside the entrance. As I put my card in a woman approached me. I heard the expected "excuse me" and prepared to hear the subsequent "can you help, I'm so and so".
Only she said "I've been assaulted and robbed and need money for a travelcard". I looked up and saw she had dried blood over her nose (or what looked like dried blood anyway- it was smeared over the nose rather than coming from inside it) and one of her hands was very dirty and had a bit of what looked like dried blood as well.
My instant reaction was to ask 'are you alright' and she said yes but she needed to get home and could she have some money. I immediately reached in my pocket and gave her all the loose change I had- about £1.70 or so. She took it but didn't even look at it and was clearly after a banknote. "I need at least £4.40 please, I'll give you my name and address". At that juncture I felt really bad but my gut feeling told me something was quite not right so I told her the money I was taking out was not mine, (which happened to be the truth anyway, and in any case I could not afford to hand out £10 at the moment) and that loose change is all I could afford. She then become rather insistent that I gave her more money please, at which point I said 'I'm sorry I can't' and walked off.
As I walked to the bike I was a bit shaken and feeling like a right bastard. Had I just rejected to help someone who had just been beaten and mugged? But then as I rode past on my way out I saw her patiently hanging by the cash machine again, and not looking in any kind of distress. When I told my girlfriend of the incident she said she's seen a woman who fits her description- mid 20s, slightly 'hippy looking' clothes- doing a similar thing at the Barclays cash machine in the past.
I'm now 95% sure she just told me a fancy story and that she was just a con artist, but I still feel really bad that I might have refused help to a genuine victim. Then again I should have thought more clearly and offer to walk her inside and ask the security guards to call the police. Surely someone who's been beaten and mugged would be calling an ambulance or the police rather than hanging around by cash machines in a supermarket?
If she's indeed a con artist I don't particularly mind losing some loose change to her, but I'd fucking hate being manipulated like that and handing over a tenner- of which I wouldn't have expected to ask change back from the £4.40 or so she needed to be honest- and then feel like a muppet for months afterwards. And yet I can't stop thinking she might have been genuine after all- though the more I think of it the unlikely it appears.
she was very convincing though.
