Thread: Woman panhandles with boy before driving away in Mercedes Benz

Woman panhandles with boy before driving away in Mercedes Benz

The California woman had been holding up a 'please help' sign before driving away in the luxury vehicle with the boy and an unidentified man. The license plate reportedly traces back to an apartment complex where a unit costs approximately $2,500 per month.

BY MARC WEINREICH
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 1:51 PM
Updated: Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 9:07 AM

KGTV

A pregnant woman with a young boy begs for money in Chula Vista, Calf.

A pregnant panhandler, a boy and a Benz— that’s what one woman saw this week that caused her to suddenly stop pumping her gas and followa woman and child as they drove off in the luxury vehicle.

Melissa Smith said in an ABC 15 reportthat she had seen them beg for change outside a shopping center in Chula Vista, Calif., every weekend for two months. The woman held up a sign that read “please help” and on weekends, a man— perhaps her boyfriend or husband, she speculated —would join her.

Smith didn’t think much of it until recently, when she saw the woman and boy leave the scene and hop into a Mercedes Benz driven by the man.

KGTV

The pair had apparently been begging for money outside a shopping center for at least two months.

“Here they are counting money, laughing and their little boy is not in a car seat or seat belt,” she said. “He's all the way in the front seat with them.”

The vehicle drove to another nearby shopping plaza and she began collecting more money.

“They drive down to the other McDonald’s,” Smith said in the report. “She sits there with the sign. He goes and parks the Mercedes. Not less than five minutes here she is getting money from all these people.”



Soon after, the woman got into a Mercedes-Benz.

Smith was yelled at by the woman once she realized photos were being taken of her. The license plate number of the Benz that Smith obtained by following the woman was associated with an apartment complex in Escondido that reportedly costs approximately $2,500 per month for a unit there.

Smith said she’s concerned about the boy.

“He's running in a parking lot instead of a park,” Smith said. “What kind of parent uses their child for monetary gain?"

Is this the Benz beggar? Minus the Benz?

Emily Valdez, 10News Digital Team
10:53 PM, Nov 11, 2014
4 hours ago

KGTV

SHOW CAPTION

SAN DIEGO - A KGTV story about a pregnant woman begging for money with a young boy at her feet -- a woman who then got into a Mercedes-Benz and drove off laughing -- has gone viral.

And now it appears she was spotted in another area begging for money.

This all started when a KGTV viewer, Melissa Smith, took photos of a pregnant beggar and a little boy panhandling in the San Diego area.

She said the woman was sometimes joined on the weekends by a man. She snapped a photo of him driving a Mercedes.

KGTV Troubleshooter Cristin Severance shed light on what Smith had seen in a piece that quickly went viral across the nation. As of Tuesday evening, over 1 million people had seen the story from the

ABC15 Facebook page alone.

Another viewer, Rebecca Smith, contacted us after she saw the story and said she had seen the family begging at the Vons on Regents Road in University City.

RELATED: See photos of pregnant woman and child begging for money

“Yeah, I just thought it was interesting that they were out here in a completely different area,” Rebecca Smith said. She contacted KGTV and then went to the Vons store.

“They didn't say much," she said. "He was holding the sign."
The woman, who this time was carrying a baby, looked like the same woman in our previous story - she was carrying a similar purse, was wearing similar shoes and had a little boy with her. A man who was with them also appeared to be the same man spotted driving the Mercedes.

KGTV Reporter Emily Valdez asked the man and woman where there car was, in Spanish.

The man said, in Spanish, “What Mercedes?”

The man and woman then spoke to each other in a different language before walking away. We followed them to see what type of vehicle they were heading to. It wasn't a Mercedes, but a minivan with dealer plates. The man and woman got into the minivan and sped off without putting the children in car seats.

“I just find it sad that people would go to this extreme,” Rebecca Smith said.

We don't know why they are begging for money, but what we do know by the viral KGTV story that this is raising eyebrows.

Now in case you're wondering if this was actually the same woman, we sent images from both instances (the photos that Melissa Smith initially took that prompted our original story and an image of the woman we encountered on Tuesday) to a forensics expert.

According to Kent Gibson with Forensic Audio, the face comparison indicated a 79.7 percent match. He said anything above 50 percent is a pretty safe bet it's the same person.




http://www.abc15.com/news/national/i...minus-the-benz

I wonder if they are Gypsies.