Excuse me for being mother like here. But I must say this, You need to call soc sec, all your credit card companies and any others that you had tucked away in your wallet. personal information is not something you just let be lost. You have to report to your bank, and everyone that has your personal information. YOu may have to have your soc sec changed. Ask the authorities at the soc sec office and at your credit card companies and at your bank, what you need to do to protect your identity and your credit.
I know you are looking to become a pastor and that you think it is Christian like to take people into your home to care for them. But my dear Brutus.... Caution never should be thrown out the window. Trust no one. That doesn't mean you leave it all to God to protect you without taking the precautionary measures for dealing with hobo's and drug addicts and just plain old strangers.
Oddly enough, this morning I was reading some of the history of the town I raised my daughter in. A town close to my heart because of all the wonderful memories of raising two children on my own there.
Anyway, As I was skimming through a bunch of articles written by the town historian, I read this one paragraph and thought of you, Dear Brutus/HisCatalyst. And thought Well, even back in the depression years when people tended towards being more hospitable and friendly toward their neighbors, the women who felt the need to feed the hobo's who occasionally strayed onto residential streets looking for food and work, knew to keep their precautions about them.
Here's the clip from the article.
"During the Great Depression of the 1930s, an occasional hobo would appear asking for work, and mother would feed him on the porch," Laundy recalled.
Brutus, It is so sad that happened to you. But these days you must be extra careful. With all the drug addicts roaming the streets these days.... well, most of them are thieves also. There are so many of them in the city of cleveland it's a very sad situation. The panhandlers are so bad downtown cleveland that the city had to take measures to control their aggressiveness and place restrictions on them as far as how close to get to businesses. They were opening doors for people while being very aggressive in asking for money. And if some people refused they would get very nasty in attitude towards them. Many people said they didn't even want to go downtown anymore because of the aggression of the hobo's. Most being drug addicts, they don't want food, they want drug money. Why would anyone give money for someone to buy drugs? Never hand out money to drug addicted people. Give them food, and refer them to a place for work, yes, but never give them money if they are saying they are hungry. One woman here went to get a bum a sandwich from a restaurant close by, but by the time she returned to the place he was begging for money he was long gone. She told him she would be back with a sandwich... If he was truly hungry he would have stayed and waited for her return. He just wanted drug money.
Also. there was a news report a while back, in which a reporter interviewed one of these street walkers/bums. He confessed to the reporter that he made $600 a week just begging for money! And sometimes more. He said he would park his car down the street of the neighborhoods he went to beg for money and at the end of the day get in his car and drive home.
Brutus, you can't believe all that those kind of people tell you.
There are ways to help them... don't invite them into your home. Many of them return later while no one is around and they rob your house. I had it done to me, back in the early 70's, by some people I thought were my friends. I found out they were drug addicts! and they sold the stuff they stole from me while I was at work! My stereo and tv.
You can't trust people just because they act friendly enough.
You are young. I too was in 20 years old when that happened to me.
There are ways to help people. But these days, with all the drug addicts begging for money and robbing people they act like they are friends with.... well, they need to be sent to rehabilitation, instead of them roaming the streets all day begging for money. They don't want food, Brutus! They want drug money.
I hope you are taking care of your ID situation. Everything that was in your wallet is now an open door to identity thieves. Please call everyone to change your account numbers. Everyone. Even tell the administrators at the school that you need to place everything on alert for ID theft. Even if you have a personal phone, you need to have the number changed and to not have a forwarding number revealed to anyone. Same goes for your address. You need to talk to the people at the post office and make sure no one is changing your address there to be forwarded to a new address. If you are suddenly missing certain mail items, you may be in trouble. The post office should ask you for ID. But if someone called any of your credit card companies or some other company to change where your statements go to, then you are vulnerable there.
So sorry, I know it is a hassle, but you need to do it! These days there is too much identity theft. Ask the police to search his residence and his car to see if your wallet is there. But even if you do have it recovered you still need to protect yourself and call all of your accounts. Identity thieves work very fast! Don't take any chances.
God bless you, and next time don't bring druggies into your home . Feed them on the porch! and refer them to an institution that can help them. Don't drive any stranger to anywhere when you are alone. Never be alone with someone you don't know. Never!
Sorry if I have alarmed you. But this is nothing to take for granted.
I don't care who you are. These days we should never minister to anyone alone. Always have someone there to cover your back.
Just because someone says they are a Christian and wanting to know Jesus doesn't mean they are telling you the truth. Be careful and let this be a lesson well learned for you as it was for me back in the early 70's.
Oh, by the way.... I knew those people that robbed me! I knew them for three years prior to being robbed by them! They were drug addicts. they didn't care who they robbed for money! they even would rob from their own mothers for the money they wanted for drugs! And to just look at them I didn't know they were addicted to the drugs so badly that they would steal from friends!
Never drop those pre-cautionary measures, no matter who you are dealing with. And never be alone I learn that "after" I got robbed. :-?
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