• Student raises thousands for homeless man who offered her £3 for a taxi
    20 replies, posted
[quote] A university student is raising money for a homeless man who offered her his last £3 so she could get home safely after a night out. Dominique Harrison-Bentzen, who had lost her bank card, refused to take the man's only money but was so moved by his gesture that she set up the Help Robbie fund to repay his kindness. Miss Harrison-Bentzen, 22, has already beaten her target of raising £12,500 for the man, identified only as Robbie. The website proved so popular that it crashed as a result of the internet traffic. The University of Central Lancashire student realised she had lost her card after a night out on December 4, when the good Samaritan stepped in. She said: "I suddenly realised that I had no money and a homeless man approached me with his only change of £3. "He insisted I took it to pay for a taxi to make sure I got home safe." She refused to take the money in the end but was so touched by the man's kind gesture that she has set herself a mission to help him. She said: "I ended up posting a status on Facebook to try and find him the next day and it turns out I'm not the only person he has helped." Robbie appears to have come to the aid of many in Preston city centre, returning wallets to pedestrians and offering his scarf to keep people warm. And now she will spend 24 hours with Robbie to raise money to help him get back on his feet. [/quote] [url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11298171/Student-raises-thousands-for-homeless-man-who-offered-her-3-for-a-taxi.html[/url] [url]http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/dec/17/student-raises-thousands-of-pounds-for-homeless-man-who-offered-her-money[/url] [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-30511262[/url]
But but but, all homeless people are mooching vagrants that don't want jobs, they just want to abuse the system and get drunk all the time. I sure wish we had spikes around everything to prevent them from mooching off the system more by sleeping on the benches or on grounds created by our tax dollars.
I do not remember being homeless. Jokes aside, I think that's really nice of her. And of him as well. It's one thing to miss 3 quid when you have the money, it's another if you're flat broke, have nothing except the last £3 you're carrying just to keep someone safe. Much respect to that man. Though it's rather unfortunate some homeless also do this, without getting this stuff except the feeling of being kind to one another.
[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46735015]What a lovely chap.[/QUOTE] I lived in preston for 3-4 years and now commute there most days. I don't personally know the guy (Robbie) but I know many people that have directly or indirectly been involved with him and uh, he's not that lovely. This particular gesture was nice, as was the students response to raise money for him, but it's not actually all love and kisses.
[QUOTE=Autumn;46735110] I know many people that have directly or indirectly been involved with him and uh, he's not that lovely.[/QUOTE] can you elaborate on that please?
[QUOTE=HazzaHardie;46735131]can you elaborate on that please?[/QUOTE] Assaults, violent threats, lots of problems regarding drugs, that sort of thing? I've no doubt that being on the streets forces you to make some changes to your personality that don't quite match up with being super friendly and generous etc. but [i]word-on-the-street[/i] is that this guy is a nasty piece of work and this one good deed doesn't quite excuse the rest of it. It's a nice little story about "aw the nice homeless guy offered his last £3 to a girl to make sure she got home safe, I wonder what a nice man like that is doing out on the streets at all, he's obviously a really nice person." People do genuinely end up homeless for all sorts of reasons, and I've no doubt that many work hard to get themselves out of such a difficult situation, it's just that this particular guy (despite his kindness in this isolated case) might not be the angel he's being portrayed as. [editline]17th December 2014[/editline] Who knows, maybe he's changing his life around and this is more of the type of thing we'll be seeing from him now. It was a nice gesture that's ended in something nice for the both of them, so there's no doubting that's good.
[QUOTE=Autumn;46735110]I lived in preston for 3-4 years and now commute there most days. I don't personally know the guy (Robbie) but I know many people that have directly or indirectly been involved with him and uh, he's not that lovely. This particular gesture was nice, as was the students response to raise money for him, but it's not actually all love and kisses.[/QUOTE] i've got a similar thing up north. there's this guy called "organic jim" who is supposedly very nice and helpful and even has an appreciation group on facebook - but this guy instead set up shop ( literally, shitloads of old ass radios and all of his belongings) right outside my window, played music and spewed nonsense till like 4 in the morning and constantly rang our doorbell asking random shit like "do you have a mathematician here" and "can you boil this cabbage for me". Woke up one morning hearing him telling random passers by that we ( my flat ) were heartless bastard students and stole his radio ( why the fuck would we want his radio ), which is lovely. he's fucking nuts and a nuisance and we've called the police multiple times on him, but it just surprises me that there are people who think he's a lovely fantastic guy here's a video of him for good measure: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_Ijsz2sDx8[/media] i appreciate what the girl is doing, but it's probably going to go to waste.
Hah, from the BBC news story: She initially hoped to raise £500 but has since raised more than £20,000. The University of Central Lancashire student asked people to each donate £3 and said she was "speechless" to have raised such a large amount, which she hopes "will change lives in Preston". "I was never planning for this much money so I'm taking advice what to do," she told BBC Radio Lancashire. "But the priority is using £1,500 of it to help Robbie." Sounds like she stands to make a tidy profit herself!
[QUOTE=Autumn;46735324]Assaults, violent threats, lots of problems regarding drugs, that sort of thing? I've no doubt that being on the streets forces you to make some changes to your personality that don't quite match up with being super friendly and generous etc. but [i]word-on-the-street[/i] is that this guy is a nasty piece of work and this one good deed doesn't quite excuse the rest of it. It's a nice little story about "aw the nice homeless guy offered his last £3 to a girl to make sure she got home safe, I wonder what a nice man like that is doing out on the streets at all, he's obviously a really nice person." People do genuinely end up homeless for all sorts of reasons, and I've no doubt that many work hard to get themselves out of such a difficult situation, it's just that this particular guy (despite his kindness in this isolated case) might not be the angel he's being portrayed as. [editline]17th December 2014[/editline] Who knows, maybe he's changing his life around and this is more of the type of thing we'll be seeing from him now. It was a nice gesture that's ended in something nice for the both of them, so there's no doubting that's good.[/QUOTE] I moved to Preston in September for university and I've had mixed experiences. There's a local Tesco nearby and there's a couple of guys there who sit and ask for change on a daily basis. If I walk past and don't give them something, they start murmuring insults at me. My friend works in the shop and says that they're given a shit tone of money and food / coffee, and just they just enter the shop for a pack of beer each time they can afford it. On the other hand I was on a night out and whilst pulling money out, I got chatty with a homeless man who openly admitted how he ended up in his situation. He was really nice to talk to and he felt like a genuine person. It also hits you hard at night when you see a handful of people throughout the city trying to sleep in door ways in shitty weather. It's nice what she's done, but I would have personally raised funds for organisations that help people in these bad situations sleep safe and to help get back up on their feet.
Aberdeen's got a few legends of homeless people. Guitar wifey ([url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in7asL-NRK4[/url]) and a lad called Darren - who told me how exactly he ended up homeless. Ex-addict who's rejected council housing in areas rife with drugs, to avoid being around them. Always a good chat on a night out.
[URL="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vote-Dominique-Harrison-Bentzen-for-Miss-Preston-2015/303639433179455"]Questionable motive[/URL]
[QUOTE=PiX06;46735479]Hah, from the BBC news story: She initially hoped to raise £500 but has since raised more than £20,000. The University of Central Lancashire student asked people to each donate £3 and said she was "speechless" to have raised such a large amount, which she hopes "will change lives in Preston". "I was never planning for this much money so I'm taking advice what to do," she told BBC Radio Lancashire. "But the priority is using £1,500 of it to help Robbie." Sounds like she stands to make a tidy profit herself![/QUOTE] Uhm, as long as the advice concerns giving money to homeless shelters and whatnot then great. If not, that's just fucked up.
[QUOTE=PiX06;46735479]Hah, from the BBC news story: She initially hoped to raise £500 but has since raised more than £20,000. The University of Central Lancashire student asked people to each donate £3 and said she was "speechless" to have raised such a large amount, which she hopes "will change lives in Preston". "I was never planning for this much money so I'm taking advice what to do," she told BBC Radio Lancashire. "But the priority is using £1,500 of it to help Robbie." Sounds like she stands to make a tidy profit herself![/QUOTE] She's probably giving the rest to homeless shelters or something, it's not a wise idea to just up and give anyone 20,000 pounds. It never ends well.
[QUOTE=Instant Mix;46735463]i've got a similar thing up north. there's this guy called "organic jim" who is supposedly very nice and helpful and even has an appreciation group on facebook - but this guy instead set up shop ( literally, shitloads of old ass radios and all of his belongings) right outside my window, played music and spewed nonsense till like 4 in the morning and constantly rang our doorbell asking random shit like "do you have a mathematician here" and "can you boil this cabbage for me". Woke up one morning hearing him telling random passers by that we ( my flat ) were heartless bastard students and stole his radio ( why the fuck would we want his radio ), which is lovely. he's fucking nuts and a nuisance and we've called the police multiple times on him, but it just surprises me that there are people who think he's a lovely fantastic guy here's a video of him for good measure: snip i appreciate what the girl is doing, but it's probably going to go to waste.[/QUOTE] oh is this a northern thing? we had one in leeds called fat lez who did pretty similar stuff, hes dead now unfortunately [t]https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/19135_238340578504_6891758_n.jpg?oh=079b65a6bdb2488b24df28e102076bf6&oe=54FD94A0&__gda__=1430094297_e28abcbd9bf946de4e40ede82ec1086a[/t]
[QUOTE=Crumpet;46735854]oh is this a northern thing? we had one in leeds called fat lez who did pretty similar stuff, hes dead now unfortunately[/QUOTE] In Preston we had a guy who walked around drinking petrol. Toxic Terry the lad. He hit the news a lot and people setup parody accounts of him. [url]http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/toxic-terry-back-in-court-1-79677[/url] [url]http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/tramp-has-3-000-online-fans-1-86835[/url] [img]http://up.nlan.org/jIg.png[/img] (nsfw) [url]https://twitter.com/toxicterence[/url] I think he's dead now mind.
My old uni, proud to say they do a lot of charitable events there and probably the best 4 years of my life.
[QUOTE=draugur;46735045]But but but, all homeless people are mooching vagrants that don't want jobs, they just want to abuse the system and get drunk all the time. I sure wish we had spikes around everything to prevent them from mooching off the system more by sleeping on the benches or on grounds created by our tax dollars.[/QUOTE] Does your asshole ever get jealous of the amount of shit that comes out of your mouth?
[QUOTE=Autumn;46735324]Assaults, violent threats, lots of problems regarding drugs, that sort of thing? I've no doubt that being on the streets forces you to make some changes to your personality that don't quite match up with being super friendly and generous etc. but [i]word-on-the-street[/i] is that this guy is a nasty piece of work and this one good deed doesn't quite excuse the rest of it. It's a nice little story about "aw the nice homeless guy offered his last £3 to a girl to make sure she got home safe, I wonder what a nice man like that is doing out on the streets at all, he's obviously a really nice person." People do genuinely end up homeless for all sorts of reasons, and I've no doubt that many work hard to get themselves out of such a difficult situation, it's just that this particular guy (despite his kindness in this isolated case) might not be the angel he's being portrayed as. [editline]17th December 2014[/editline] Who knows, maybe he's changing his life around and this is more of the type of thing we'll be seeing from him now. It was a nice gesture that's ended in something nice for the both of them, so there's no doubting that's good.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure I know which one he is - he pops up in the train station numerous times a week and often refuses to leave which means he has to be thrown out. Quite violent sometimes He also isn't homeless, he sleeps in the hostel on Fox Street [QUOTE=Silentfood;46735898]In Preston we had a guy who walked around drinking petrol. Toxic Terry the lad. He hit the news a lot and people setup parody accounts of him. [url]http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/toxic-terry-back-in-court-1-79677[/url] [url]http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/tramp-has-3-000-online-fans-1-86835[/url] [img]http://up.nlan.org/jIg.png[/img] (nsfw) [url]https://twitter.com/toxicterence[/url] I think he's dead now mind.[/QUOTE] Terry's dead now unfortunately. He died last year, confirmed to me by one of the coroners assistants. Such a tragic story, he was always lovely towards me whenever I was at work. He'd pretend to give me a gift and then wander off in his own world.
Apparently the way to a cool nickname is through being homeless.
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