So most of you know I take daily walks.  I see a lot of stuff and have oodles of time to think of stuff to post here only to be taken over by fits of laziness when I get home leading to no posts at all.

Several weeks ago I was walking toward a busy intersection light when from the corner comes an average 23-ish woman who looked a little lost.  Mind you, she looked at first glance to have everything together, she just looked like she needed directions somewhere.

"Hi, do you know where a Chevron gas station is?" she said a little sheepishly.

"Why yes, there's one on the corner of the next signal a block away," I said thinking I had done my good deed for the day and was ready to continue on my walk.

Well, it wasn't that easy.  See, this woman felt compelled to tell me that she had an interview with the station owner set for an hour earlier, but had just got off the bus across the street because she wasn't certain where the gas station was located.

Okay, I thought I would not hire anyone who was an hour late, but if she couldn't find the gas station, then someone might give her a break.

She recounted that she met the owner of the gas station the day before at the hospital, which was nearby, and he asked her to come to the gas station at 11 a.m., or an hour before I met this person.

Now, I didn't think to ask what she was doing at the hospital, or what the gas station owner was doing at the hospital.  Or how they got on the subject that she should come to his shop for an interview.

But this was enough to let me know that she probably was there for some emergency, if she was really there.

She also is an able-bodied young adult without a job.  And someone looking like she did should have absolutely no problem getting a job.  She didn't smile once during our conversation, but if she had, anyone would probably agree that she would have been cute as a button had she smiled.  She didn't, but there's no reason this woman should not be at work on a Monday.

So, there was the question of her not remembering where the gas station was - of course, she didn't meet the guy at the gas station, she met him at the hospital.  However, there is only one gas station within a short distance from that hospital.  The next closest one is at least a mile a way, so I don't see how she could have gotten that wrong.

Also, who the hell is late for a job interview?  Especially one where the owner personally asks you to come in for the interview?  Why not conduct the interview at the hospital?  Why do you need a further interview to work at a gas station? - And yeah, some of you might work at gas stations and I certainly mean no disrespect by the above comment; it's just that she gave me no indication that she needed to fill out a job application to show her previous experience.  It sounded to me like the guy just wanted to give her a job.

So, she didn't know what the guy's name was, or which station he was at, but there was a gas station a block away that fit the description.  Even so, she asked me if I had a phone she could use. (I did, but I wasn't going to give it to her,)

I saw she wasn't wearing a watch, and I was wearing a GPS Garmin thingy, which can tell time, it's just a bitch to get to that screen.  So I said, "Wow, sounds like the guy wanted to just give you the job and you're late.  Heck, what time is it anyway?"

She then pats her pockets and pulls out a flip phone - I knew it! - and gives me the time as being sometime after noon.  So, if she had a phone, why did she need to borrow mine?  Hmm?

She never really looked me in the eye.  She was shifting her weight from side to side, more so than a person her age should.  The younger a person is, the more they fidget.  Compare your niece or nephew to say your grandpa in movement. Anyway, she was jumpy I would say.  However, her skin seemed healthy and clear.   She was standing too close for my taste.

I explained that if I were her, I would rush to the gas station a block away and see if the owner was the owner she talked to.  If not, well, they all know each other and multiple gas stations are usually owned by the same person, or corporation, within a given area.

I will say this, I was hoping someone would call my cell phone during that conversation so I would have to explain that yes, I did have a phone, but no, there was no way in hell I was going to give it to her.

So, my initial thought's on walking away is she needed to make a call to her pusher, or she wanted to capture my phone number for some nefarious reason.  No sane or sober person would ask to borrow another's phone, then pull out a phone right in front of that person to check on the time.

She finally started to walk slowly toward the gas station.  Perhaps she was going to wait for the next victim to show up at that corner after i had gone.

My question is:  Crack whore, or no crack whore? 

Vote!

You gota try the crack heads here in So-Cal.

...either that or the professional scammers that work the parking lots with every varity of sob story. 

So true.

Oh! story time!

So, I am walking into vons one day. This guy in a red durango pulls up next to me as I am walking into the store. He says "Hey dude whats up you got a sec?" I was not really doing anything special so I figured what the hell.

So he parked and gave me a story about how they are professional delivery/installers and they have this new davanci stereo that was "extra" and they would have to return it to the warehouse so they were trying to sell it before they had to.

Fishy right? I take a look at the stereo, all the parts are there, its in working order they guy asks me for $1000 which is a great deal right? The recommended retail on the side of the box is over $3000. So I go into the vons and "check my bank account" really what I am doing is giving an "annomyous" call to the campus undercover "real cop" I know. He comes out there busts them - good game?