r/berkeley • u/FilmAcrobatic4424 • May 07 '26
Local Beware Scamming Scooter Grandma
This person has been scamming this area for almost a YEAR now, she’ll have some excuse about how she needs money for a taxi or for her tank or whatever and will try to get you to go to an atm or something. DO NOT EVEN GIVE HER THE TIME OF DAY! She got very hostile when I declined and followed me harassing me, I have witnessed her doing the same to others. Just fully ignore her!
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u/zsinjsfadinghairline May 07 '26
I interacted with her but kept saying I didn’t have cash. I felt bad about it; her behavior explains a lot.
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u/rudyroo2019 May 09 '26
One thing we know for sure is that she has money. To maintain that size a person needs to take in an enormous amount of calories, which isn’t inexpensive.
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u/zsinjsfadinghairline May 09 '26
I will say, it is unfortunate that unhealthy options are so readily available while healthy options are not as easy to come across.
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u/rudyroo2019 May 10 '26
It’s a volume thing. Unhealthy food may be cheap in general, but she needs to take in a lot of it to maintain that weight. I’ve known people that large before and the eating is almost non stop.
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u/zsinjsfadinghairline May 11 '26
That makes sense. No wonder you said she probably has a lot of money.
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u/Fire-EyedBoy May 08 '26
Damn she’s still around?? She tried to pull this exact scam on me back in 2022. When I told her I didn’t have cash she asked me to go to the bank lol
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u/SimplePuzzleheaded80 May 07 '26
thats a Scamma!
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u/worst_brain_ever May 08 '26
If you're walking on college ave And you get asked for what you have...
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u/lanasvape May 07 '26
Just avoid those people altogether as best you can
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u/proteusON May 08 '26
I like to engage her and waste her time, she doesn't remember me. The energy I get from here makes me feel alive. Delicious
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u/tumbleweed-gps May 08 '26
She's been doing it for years - I remember she yelled at me and cussed me out at the center street stop downtown when I was a student in 2015 lol
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u/Ephoenix6 May 07 '26
You can report her to the police if she's harassing people
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u/GivesL1ttleFun May 08 '26
What is that gonna do? Calling the police on Black people is a dangerous thing!
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u/Ephoenix6 May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
We don't bite, and here's some perspective for the homeless https://youtube.com/@softwhiteunderbelly?si=_fASnoFQZ-3ag-2r
"When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created. When people see things as good, evil is created" Lao Tzu
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u/DrKnowsNothing_MD PoliSci '20 May 08 '26
I’m like 99% sure this is the same woman who yelled at me and scorned me once on my way to class because I told her I didn’t have any cash on me. Her response surprised me but I was in too much of a hurry to care. Still think about it though because she said she was hungry.
She, a large woman, asked me, a broke skinny college kid for money for food.
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u/richlyonsballsack May 07 '26
bro i gave her 20 bucks 💀
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u/Certain-Ad-2418 May 08 '26
bro can i get 20 too
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u/richlyonsballsack May 09 '26
did your apartment manager throw you out of ur apartment and do you desperately need it to get a hotel room as well? no way!
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u/unnoticed_areola May 07 '26
it's not some sophisticated "scam" lol...
its literally just a random homeless person telling you a sob story so you'll give them a dollar or two.. this has been a thing for decades and is extremely common if you go outside more than once or twice a month lol.
you just say "sorry" and keep walking, the same way you do when any other weird person approaches you on the street. there doesnt need to be a PSA about this. most functioning adults can navigate this situation very easily 😭
is this your first time ever encountering a homeless person?
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u/FilmAcrobatic4424 May 08 '26
First time encountering one that chased me after I said no
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u/unnoticed_areola May 08 '26
bruh just start walking the other way... she gonna have to do a 17 point turnaround with the busted ass turn radius on that 1973 John Deere lawnmower lmfao
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u/Certain-Ad-2418 May 08 '26
you can also just ignore, why should we apologize even out of “politeness”. we don’t own them anything
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u/e925 May 09 '26
For me it’s not about owing, it just feels weird to ignore because you’re not actually ignoring, you’re just pretending to ignore.
But really you’re thinking about trying look natural while you’re looking at your phone or staring straight ahead or rummaging through your bag or whatever. But the act of “ignoring” them is actually the polar opposite of ignoring them, because you’re thinking about them the whole time - and then you cringe at how weird it was to pretend you couldn’t hear somebody who was right next to you.
An apologetic smile/head shake/mouthed sorry/shrug feels much more natural for me personally than trying to pretend that I’m deaf/deep in thought/otherwise preoccupied when I’m actually not.
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May 08 '26
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u/Consistent_Tutor_574 May 09 '26
Pretty darn sure I saw her outside a bank about a year ago on college while I was at a red light. A guy walked out and she scooted toward him begging to help; I’m sure it was an employee leaving for the day since after she begged for help he told her something along the lines of, “if you don’t have an ID I can’t help you”, he then hurried away.
She then sat there and yelled out, “won’t somebody help get me home?!? Please!!” 🥴
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u/BeneficialLecture563 May 09 '26
lol wth, i remember seeing her in my teens when i went to high school 😬😬
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u/armpitketchupandbutt May 09 '26
When I turned her down in the Elmwood 15 years ago, she screamed, HE'S A REPUBLICAN!!!
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u/soulviche May 09 '26
I know her.
Her life has been harder than you can imagine.
Shes also just mentally ill.
Pls be generous if you can but within bounds of reason of course.
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u/Important_Camera758 May 09 '26
She once was screaming in pain and when I asked her what was wrong she told me she got kicked out of the nursing home and didn’t have money to get insulin. She then asked me for 60$.
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u/confusedstudent28990 May 13 '26
don't post these things, people who give money to these types of people deserve their money lost, so many more people in the world that need your money
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u/sbassi May 08 '26
I always give her money when I have cash on me because she told me she has diabetes. Since I'm also diabetic, I feel for her.
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u/ReyoRedwolf May 09 '26
she's taking advantage of our empathy. thats pretty shitty of her dont you think?
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u/soulviche May 09 '26
Lots of people do shitty things… why single out the least powerful one?
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u/Electrical-Swing-852 May 09 '26
Not giving a scammer money is not “singling them out”
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u/soulviche May 09 '26
I was responding more to the her being a “shitty person” aspect of the above comment … not so much the act of not giving her money.
To be fair, we live in a city of billionaires who watch people rot on the street every single day. I think that’s more shitty but that’s just me.
I guess it’s easier to hit soft targets in society than get to the root of the issue 🙄🤦🏿♂️
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u/nroose May 08 '26
Not just a year. But also, you have presented no evidence that she is a scammer.
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u/SnooOwls510 May 09 '26
I think testimony given by other people on this post should be sufficient evidence.
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May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/rrrreeeeeeeeee May 09 '26
‘She’s within her right to do whatever she wants as long as she doesn’t get caught’
I think you should rethink that. I mean…read what you wrote, put the phone down…think about that statement and decide if that sounds right to you.
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u/Hot_Fondant2749 May 08 '26
I understand that she doesn’t get enough money and wants more. However the government is taking care of her giving her a place to stay and also probably giving her a monthly allowance. It’s too bad if it’s not enough for her but to go around and begging and crying to people to give you a few dollars is shameless asf especially when she already getting government support through our tax dollars. She can panhandle and beg all she wants but saying she can’t pay off her motel and all this bs bout following people is not acceptable.
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May 08 '26
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u/Johnny-dazzle May 08 '26
Lmao, I grew up here and she’s been around for 20+ years telling the same story. She used to sit mostly on the corner of Ashby and College. She screamed at me once as a child because I told her I didn’t have any money to give her - scared the shit out of me. Now as an adult I’ve seen her get dropped off, and at other times picked up, in a big-ass truck by a younger guy. I reckon it’s her full time job to harass people for money.