My boyfriend had an encounter with Tony recently and came up with a clever ploy to get him to go away that I thought I should share. Here is his story: ************************* A few weeks ago while I was mowing the lawn I was approached by a man who seemed very pleasant and polite. He commented about my motorcycle and we chatted briefly. He introduced himself as Tony ? something? who lived a few doors down. After a few more minutes of chatting about motorcycles and lawn care, he very casually made his pitch for $20 so that he could take a taxi to avoid the heat while he went to meet a tow-truck driver to pick up his Ford Explorer which had broken down on the South Side. His wife was at work for the next few hours and she had the ATM card, yadda, yadda. Wanting to help this nice-seeming fellow but being skeptical of any request for money from a stranger, I told him that I would be happy to help a neighbor but since I had never met him before I just wanted to be sure he was actually a neighbor first. So I asked him if he had any ID that showed he lived on the street and that if he did I would be happy to give him the money (no repayment necessary). He thanked me profusely, said he would be back in a couple of minutes with his ID, and headed off in the direction of his supposed house. I was outside for the next 30 minutes and he never came back... I'm pretty pleased with my solution. I was nice all throughout and gave him no reason to get mad at me and potentially vandalize my motorcycle later. I expressed my willingness to help the character he had created and I only asked for the most basic confirmation of his story and I did so in a "sorry to be untrusting" way. And I gave him a plausible exit strategy (aka escape route). Not that I planned any of it... I just wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt but not be a sucker. - Nathan