http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4739937Oh my.
It doesn't take an Einstein, or even an Atman, to figure this out.
BerryBush (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-30-08 07:22 PM
Original message
Now at the local gas-station convenience store...meat being sold out of a car trunk.
On my way from my bus to my apartment today, I stopped off at the neighborhood gas-station convenience mart, which has a Subway inside, to buy a sandwich and a few groceries. Before I could get inside, a woman who bore all the earmarks of a panhandler tried to get my attention right by the door. "Can I ask you a question? Can I ask you a question?"
For some reason, I stopped.
"Do you like steak?"
I said yes, wondering what the heck kind of scam this was. Well, turns out the woman was selling, or claimed to be selling, steaks directly out of her CAR in a parking spot right outside the store! Yes, out of an unrefrigerated car in the parking lot of a gas station convenience store (and it's not that cold right now, either). She claimed to have all kinds of lovely steaks, I could come and see for myself.
I told her I'd think about it (although I had no intention of doing so) and went into the store. When I came back out, she was gone.
Of course, when I got home, I had to try Googling to see whether this is a common scam. I sure never ran across it before. Although I had no intention of buying any of her wares--who knows where she got them from, what quality they were or how well cared for they were, and for all I know selling meat this way is illegal--I couldn't help but wonder whether this was an ordinary scammer or some poor person who maybe had a lot of meat in her freezer, acquired or purchased during a better time in her life, who now for some reason has no source of income, and who saw in her freezer a way to make money she could put to good use.
You know--if you eat your steaks you can eat great while they last and when they're gone, they're gone, but if you try to sell them, you can use the money to buy cheaper food you can stretch out a lot longer. Or maybe use to pay bills, or something.
Then again, maybe she (and some other hidden partner) was just using the promise of cheap steaks as a mugger's lure. ("Look, I want to show you these things, but not parked right in front of the store--we might have trouble. Why don't you just get inside and we'll drive around to the back alley here in the dark where no one will see us...")
Anyone else run into this kind of thing? It was freaky.
Cleita (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-30-08 07:26 PM
Response to Original message
2. I did a long time ago.
I didn't buy but looked. The steaks were packaged like Omaha steaks that are mail order. Either they stole the genuine article from a warehouse, or I hate to think who's horse disappeared.
Or Bambi.
monmouth (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-30-08 07:28 PM
Response to Original message
4. OR, she did have a partner, there were really no steaks and this was a way to lure you mug and steal your pocketbook. I'm in Florida, originally from Jersey, this is some of the way it's done. Thank God you didn't go with her. OR, check your local news for robberies of meat in the area (Omaha steaks in particular). Glad you're safe.
Oh my.
Omaha Steaks, a product of Nebraska beef producers, who produce the finest beef in the world, are a "hot" rip-off item? I guess it makes sense--better to steal diamonds instead of pebbles, if one must steal--but I just never imagined it.
tmfun (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-30-08 07:29 PM
Response to Original message
6. In my area people have been selling homemade tamales out of their cars in supermarket parking lots for years. I have never indulged as I am not all that comfortable with the sanitation in most restaurants, much less car trunks but they keep selling them so I assume someone buys them.
Arctic Dave (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-30-08 08:06 PM
Response to Reply #6
20. When I lived in Phoenix I bought a lot of them. Yummy!
However I also eat hot dogs from street vendors in Mexico and ate whatever the neatest street vendor was selling near me when I was hungry in Asia. Sometimes yummy.
I'll bet Montezuma wreaked a lot of revenge on the polar primitive.
itsrobert (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-30-08 07:33 PM
Response to Original message
10. The meat could of been taken out of a supermarket dumpster
I was on patrol once and went to throw away some trash at a supermarket dumpster and notice it was filled with meat. Of course meat has an "expiration date". I wonder if this woman was dumpster diving and looking to make a quick buck?
oktoberain (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-30-08 07:33 PM
Response to Original message
11. A lot of times, stuff like that is stolen.
Good meat is expensive, so people shoplift a whole grocery cart worth of steaks, filets, expensive roasts, etc. and then re-sell them from their cars at another store. I used to work at a grocery store; I cannot tell you how many times we caught people trying to leave out the "In" doors with entire cartloads of meat, most with the intention of re-selling rather than using. Those types are sometimes genuinely needy folks looking to make rent money or power bill money, but most of the time they're looking to make drug money fast, and there's no way for us to really know the difference.
Not all shoplifting is for drug money, though. I once saw a woman with three small kids put a relatively inexpensive package of chicken legs into her diaper bag before checking out. I stopped her, and she started crying right away, so I didn't say a word to the store manager. I just gave her a ten dollar bill and let her buy them instead. I've never forgotten her. I sometimes wonder how she's doing.
Times are hard. Crime is always wrong, of course, but I ache for the ones who feel like they have to steal in order to eat or pay rent. *sigh*
Don't worry, October train primitive.
That's all going to change, in the twinkling of an eye, at 9:00:01 a.m. central time, January 20, 2009; the lonestarnut primitive promised us.
ANNOUNCEMENT FROM franksolich
LONESTARNUT/HUNGER WATCH TO START ON JANUARY 20, 2009
TRACKING THE HUNGER IN THE 0BAMAREICH
The babbling sister primitive, who thinks "darky" and "pickaninny" toys are "cute," illuminates us:
babylonsister (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-30-08 07:43 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. There are legal companies that sell food this way; an older couple across the street from me used to get a weekly delivery.
babylonsister (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-30-08 07:51 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. I just remembered the name; here's their website:
http://www.schwans.com/
MiniMe (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-30-08 08:01 PM
Response to Reply #17
19. I know somebody who gets things from them. They are legit.
Of course they are; who doesn't know Schwan's?
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Tue Dec 30th 2008, 08:06 PM
Response to Original message
Steaks Freezer
Democratic Scam
Gas-station Subway
On my Way Groceries
Sandwich
I have NO idea what that Adbot thing's about, but there it is.
