FOLSOM-
Neighbors in Folsom say phony panhandlers have been hitting them up in shopping center parking lots for money they don’t really need.
“We made eye contact and she made a b-line for me,” Kelly Oakes said.
Oakes recognized a mother and daughter pair of panhandlers outside the Folsom Target from a story she had read on the Folsom Watch Facebook Page. Oakes says she later learned the duo already had money, cell phones and lived in a home in Antelope.
“I told her, ‘No, I can’t give you money.’ And then I proceeded to take a picture of her, which made her very angry and that’s when she became aggressive and got in my face and started doing gestures. She didn’t go away, her little girl started sticking out her tongue at me,” Oakes said.
“We have some that put the label aggressive when I think persistent might be a better description,” Folsom Police Sergeant Andrew Bates said.
Sergeant Bates told FOX40 in order for police to physically respond to panhandler complaints, the panhandler’s behavior needs to cross the line from persistent and into criminal. The examples he gave included a panhandler blocking someone’s path or not allowing them to leave (false imprisonment) or physical assault.
“We balance that person’s first amendment right to ask with the other persons right to be left alone. And we have to come to some medium where we don’t trample on the other person’s rights,” Bates said.
Sergeant Bates confirmed that the city of Folsom did not have an ordinance specifically addressing or banning panhandling. He added that statewide “aggressive panhandling” type laws have been challenged and overturned.
“Courts have been increasingly protecting free speech even if people don’t like the content of it,” Sergeant Bates said.
Oakes’ picture of the panhandlers prompted over 80 comments on Facebook from other neighbors who claim to have encountered the same or similar groups of people asking for money. Many say the panhandlers prey on people’s emotions because they show up as a family, but wear new clothes and leave in nice cars.
“I think they are probably very well aware of the demographics in Folsom,” Oakes said.
Folsom Police have teamed up with these Facebook Watch Groups, creating what they call a resource card. The resource card lists local food banks and ministries. The idea is that people have something helpful to give a panhandler instead of leaving them empty handed.
“It’s a nice way to say, ‘I have compassion for you, if you really need help, here,'” Oakes said.
“That doesn’t tell them no I don’t care about you and I don’t want to help you, but that isn’t a cash donation,” Sergeant Bates said.
