"Thanks for checking on me!"

I try not to mess with bums, er, excuse me, homeless people. I've spent a lot of time, water, soap, and hand sanitizer cleaning up after having to handle one of these people. Often time they are drunk and always dirty as hell. They are not the 'down on their luck' as often portrayed by bleeding hearts, people with big hearts but little street sense and the ilk. Most of these guys choose life on the streets because they do what they want, don't have to answer to anyone and usually are given enough money to eat and drink off of. Not to mention that it's tax free. However, they are also human beings. When I see them panhandling in the street I do make them get out of the road. I'm sure they wait until I'm gone then get back in the road. However (so far) I haven't had to deal with the same bum in the street because the next time I find the same guy in the street I will make a scene that will leave him uncomfortable.

Yesterday I'm driving down the street and find a bum in an intersection leaning over a stolen shopping cart (filled with clothes and such) with his head hanging down. At first I drove past and then got to thinking. What if the guy needs medical attention or even better, what if I was on someones camera seeing if anyone would stop and check on a bum. I make a u-turn and come back to the intersection. By now he has crossed. That's a good sign. I get out and walk up to him. He's hanging off the basket. He says over and over he doesn't need an ambulance. He says he is depressed. Well, not to sound mean but I don't really care to hear his problems. All I care is that he isn't dying right now when I can easily get an ambulance to tend to him. The bum then thanks me for checking on him and that was all. I'm sure he was a little drunk, but going through the motion of arresting him and having to keep up with that basket full of clothes when this guy was going to sit behind a building didn't strike me as a prudent use of time. So I let him be.