What kind of scams are going around truck stops?

Had some guy wake me up (TA in Knoxville; IdleAir/no idle side) with a clip board and a hardhat at 3 am this morning and tell me that "they" were getting ready to dig a new water-line (to where???) and they needed six trucks to move. (But he would let me sleep if I gave him $50)
He didn't look too happy when I told him to F-OFF, but two trucks on either side of me did move.
At 8:30, I saw no sign of heavy equipment.

 

That's a new one... gonna dig a water line but if you give him 50 bucks you can stay and sleep? Yeah driver never mind that big trench you fall into when you get out of the truck later on.

 

Bonus if you DO dig a hole, right forward of his drive wheels.

 

Could you have done this, played along with him and said that you have to go inside to get money from an ATM machine to pay him so you can stay there to rest ...

BUT ...

actually gone to the truck stop manager, brought him out to pounce on the guy who was the fake water line installer?

I do think that angle of installing a water line is very unique but that does not change the fact that he's a scammer and should be punished.

 

I would have sent that moron home with a fresh dent in his forehead.

 

Yesterday (September 23, 2009) I was getting off the bus to go home. As I was crossing the street ...

Hey, Farmer ...

What?

Well, you are wearing bib overalls I did not know what to call you. I hope you are not offended.

What do you want?

I can just go away.

What DO you want?

How you doing?

WHAT DOOOOOOOO YOOOOOOOOU WANT?

My wife and child are up there (pointing to the Montgomery Village CVS) and we live in Berkeley Springs (a town in West Virginia about one and a half hours and eighty-one miles away)

We need money for gas.

Uh ... NO.

He glared at me and walked off.

Now, there was no "Sorry I did not think ahead about the gas situation". There was no showing me a West Virginia drivers license so I could determine that he actually lived in Berkeley Springs. There was no offer to get my contact information so he could send me a check to repay the loan. Actually, he never said that he wanted to borrow the money. He just up and said that he needed the money, like he expects to travel places and then have someone pick up the tab for the gas on the return trip.

I guess maybe I should have told him I was going to be crossing the street with him to inspect his car's gas gauge and to look and confirm he does have a wife and kid. I also should have quizzed him about Berkeley Springs and Morgan County and West Virginia, of which I know a little bit and seen if he knew the right answers.

But this situation sounded way too much like the time I was told by a woman at the Soap and Suds laundromat in Hampton, Virginia "My kid needs to go to a doctor's appointment and I have to get gas". She was driving a 14 person passenger van.

I said, "Uh ... NO".

Then I hung back a bit to listen to her ask other people at the laundromat and then I saw her get into the van, call someone on a cell phone and say "This is not a good place to get money, I'll try someplace else".

 

On a trip to Laredo, stopped short of final destination for the night. Don't remember where in Texas. Was a Petro. This kid comes up about early 20's jumps up on the running board and asks if I am headed toward KC. Well I'm not, so goes on to tell me how he is there because of a moving job he was on and they left him.

He told me he didn't have any money and hadn't eaten in a couple of days. Offered to sweep my trailer for a couple of bucks. Well the trailer was loaded so instead offered him a bottle of water and 5 bucks. He thanked me and later when I went into the truck stop he was in there drinking the water and eating a sandwich. So I guess all stories are not bs.

 

Oh I'm sure not all stories are b.s. but so many of them are it's hard to trust anyone out here anymore.

 

Good point ... in a differnt place and time, yea; maybe all stories would not be BS but nowadays ... my default is to trust NO ONE and let the police or Traveler's Aid, etc. verify their story and help them out.

 

I was once waiting on the ramp to turn into the Hotlanta Petro when a guy jumped up on my running board. He gave me a sad story about how he'd just started this new driving job, and his truck broke down on the on-ramp just ahead, with his wife and young child in the truck. He also repeated several times that he thought I didn't look like a racist and how the people who wouldn't help him before were just low-down dirty racists. (way to play the race card, dude).

I called on the C.B. to see if anyone could see a truck sitting on the on-ramp, and got several replies that there was nobody at all on the ramp. Rather than show any concern about where the heck his family and truck had gone, started yelling and screaming at me.

Hmm. Yep, I'm a baaaaaad man.