Freeloaders

My grandma was famous for saying "beggars can't be choosers". I elect to upgrade that expression to "beggars can't be truthful". This is how broke freeloading riders are stepping up their game and bringing it in 2010. Guy wanders up the aisle today loudly asking anyone if they can spare change, he just needs money for a ticket. Then he quickly goes on to announce that he is (get this) not panhandling...he's just unemployed and just trying to get to his job. I'm not sure how you can be unemployed and commuting to work at the same time, perhaps he didn't really think that one through. Or just underestimated the mental acuity of us morning commuters. So, of course in the spirit of apathy, nobody on my train car looks up to meet his eye. Or offers any money. I kind of felt bad for the guy actually, I feel like he should have told a joke or done a little dance...you know, earn it. I debated whether to make that suggestion but in the time it took for my neurons and electrons to finish firing, the conductor lectured him about theft-of-services and threw him off at Farmingdale. Can you even imagine the serious street cred this guy could have had if he just let himself be arrested for theft-of-services? He came very close, he could have been locked up in a SuperMax with turnstyle jumpers and jaywalkers....and maybe the guys who sell bootleg CDs on the corner.