The bearded panhandler stood by the stop sign at the corner of Hollywood and the off ramp to the hospital from 6:30 a.m. until after rush hour in the afternoon. He held a cardboard sign that read “Hungry. Please help.” He collected wads of ones, fives, and occasionally a ten, twenty, or even a sausage biscuit from employees of the hospital who were ethically bound to help. He had a stack of empty water bottles littered on the grass for city employees to clean up and tied his one-eyed dog to a light pole. I felt like there were plenty of jobs in town for him since COVID, but not tax-free ones. One night, I left work later than usual, drove down Hollywood, saw him getting into a new SUV in a nearby parking lot, and followed him to a curbside pickup at the Outback Steakhouse. I videoed him on my phone and emailed my discovery to the evening news channel. I saw him two weeks later near a Walmart entrance, sporting a baseball cap, a clean-shaven face, and panhandling with a new cardboard sign that read “Lost job. Need Help” and decided that while I might give him credit for persistence and creativity, I still wouldn’t hand over my hard-earned money to the panhandler.