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In a world-class city, you'd expect the sob-story guys to be multilingual

Ari Ofsevit reports a Hebrew-talking sob-story guy in Cambridge today:

Scene: Lafayette square in Cambridge. Guy with rolling suitcase approaches me. “Do you speak Hebrew?”

Not “m’daber ivrit” mind you. I spit out like two words but he does indeed speak some English. He’s in trouble. Lost his wallet. Lives in DC but originally Israeli (with the accent to prove it). Has $100 but needs $86 more for a train ticket. Can I help him out?

Certainly you could take a bus for $86. No, he has a heart condition. Has to get up to walk every 20-30 minutes. Swears on his child’s life he will pay me back because he is a good Jew.

He has his phone and can call his girlfriend in Israel to confirm but apparently can’t use Venmo or a wire transfer or anything. I say I’m sorry I can’t help him out and he scurried away.

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Comments

Honestly I think anyone who has ever worked in Boston/Cambridge has been approached by this similar type of "scam." If you work in the City long enough sometimes the same people will approach you with the same story a few weeks/months apart. This, along with many other sob stories, are very typical.

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what’s the point of posting a story about someone’s interaction with a potentially homeless person?

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Bless your heart

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Well that's a new one.

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With the heart condition bit. It's not like there are people standing in the aisle on a bus trip to DC.

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Quick! Tell me where he gets them. I just priced train tickets to DC and it's cheaper to fly...

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You need more ID to fly than to take a train.

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I read it as $186 for the train - he was short $86.

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