Publicado em 30 de março de 2015
Pregnant panhandler caught leaving her spot in new Mercedes Benz
SAN DIEGO - An outraged viewer contacted KGTV in San Diego after she watched a pregnant woman and a boy beg for money in a shopping center and then drive away in a Mercedes Benz.
Melissa Smith took pictures of the beggar, the boy and the Benz.
Smith said she saw the pregnant panhandler and the boy, who might have been the woman's son, at Eastlake Village Center in Chula Vista, California every weekend for two months. She said the woman's husband or boyfriend would join them on the weekends.
Smith said the woman held a cardboard sign that said "please help" on the front.
"Lots of people gave them money,” Smith said. “Probably five people in five minutes gave them money."
Smith said she was getting gas when she saw the couple at the usual spot in the plaza.
"I noticed they grabbed their little boy and they got into a Mercedes Benz,” Smith said. “I thought, ‘Wow, a Mercedes Benz. It's not even used - it's not old. It's a new Benz’."
Smith said she stopped pumping gas, got into her own car and drove away.
"Lo and beyond they were in front of us,” she said. “Here they are counting money, laughing and their little boy is not in a car seat or seat belt. He's all the way in the front seat with them."
Smith said she took pictures on the car and license plate and watched them drive to another shopping plaza on Bonita Road.
"They drive down to the other McDonald’s,” Smith said. “She sits there with the sign. He goes and parks the Mercedes. Not less than five minutes here she is getting money from all these people."
Smith took additional pictures of the woman and little boy asking for money at the new location.
"I'm going to take these photos so I can show my friends so they don't give them their money. They don't need it. They are driving a Benz," said Smith.
She said the woman saw her taking the pictures and started yelling at Smith to stop.
KGTV ran the license plate number and it came back registered to a woman with an Escondido apartment complex address.
Residents said it costs $2,500 a month to live at the complex.
They also said the people KGTV was looking for had recently moved, and a forwarding address could not be obtained.
Smith said she wants people to know about this couple before they find a new place to panhandle with the boy, whom she believes may be their son.
"He's running in a parking lot instead of a park,” Smith said. “What kind of parent uses their child for monetary gain?"
Police said the woman has not been reported by anyone else since Smith’s run-in.
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