A man who pretends to be mentally and physically handicapped while he goes around the streets begging claims he makes up to $100,000 a year from his panhandling.
Gary Thompson, from Texas, gets around Lexington, Kentucky, in a wheelchair which he says he needs because he has difficulty walking.
He also maneuvers his hands in a way that would lead the untrained eye to believe he had difficulty using them.
Added to the fact Thompson seems to have difficulty speaking and fully understanding, he manages to illicit a lot of sympathy from others – sympathy and money.
Thompson was awarded $2.4 million in a lawsuit tied to a motorcycle accident from 1993, money he said he and his family spent.
His sob story to passers by is that his family took the money he received when he was paralyzed in the accident. He does have some difficulty walking but is not totally paralyzed.
When he was confronted about the scheme by LEX 18 news station, he laughed and said he doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.
“I appreciate you guys busting me,’ Thompson told a reporter. ‘Yeah, I’m really good at it, really good. I clear about 100,000 dollars a year doing this.
‘Anything from 60,0000 to 100,00 dollars. I am normal, it just helps to be mentally handicapped.’
Not only can Thompson speak and use his arms properly, but he has a degree in speech pathology that allowed him to mimic a mentally disabled person.
Hailing from Austin, Texas, he claims to have pulled the same stunt there before moving to Kentucky. Police there recently held a press conference about it warning people of the scam.
After LEX 18 confronted Thompson about the alleged scam, he showed no remorse and simply wheeled himself off to beg right in front of a police station.
Judy McKinney told Lex 18: ‘He got me! I don’t make that much money, but I reached into my pocket, and gave him everything I had. Six dollars at the time.’
Thompson has reportedly been charged twice this year over his scheme and pleaded guilty on both occasions.
Source: DAILY MAIL
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
He manages to illicitly elicit a lot of sympathy. A dishonest person, but with so much violent crime in USA, is he the public enemy #1?
wow Let him join all the fake MEshulachim that come around on a daily basis I always ask them the name of the weeks parsha and half of them have no clue.
Who even knows if they are in fact Jewish?
how come they didn’t bust him earlier
” he manages to illicit a lot of sympathy from others”
The word is elicit, not illicit.
[Why don’t people use the spell check facility on their computers???]
Why do the law enforcers allow him to get away with it? He’s a goniff preying on people’s good hearts.
i know a man with a Twisted Lip who cleared far more than that.
also, the word is elicit, though illicit would be a cute pun.
finally, im not sure why one would need a degree in pathology to mimic a disability. unless they give classes in college on how to do thiz.