Beggars and Thieves…

Sitting in the calmness of a wee coffee shop sipping a latte is great for me, no smoking cravings or anything, just me some coffee and a garibaldi biscuit.
That was until a glossy dark haired woman in a fancy leather jacket came over to me holding up a laminated card that said “I am from Romania, I am poor please give me money to feed my kids”
She had a designer handbag and smart heavy leather winter boots. I know this woman; she is always in and out of a big BMW car that cruises up and down the West End where I live. Then I recalled how I know her, she is part of the gang of beggars that work the west end and have been photographed and targeted as fraudsters.

She thrust the card under my nose again and looked at me with a nonchalant glance.

I stood up and shouted at the coffee counter staff “Excuse me are professional beggars supposed to be in here to annoy us” Remember I have Beggars and Thieves…
stopped smoking and am not easily negotiated at most times anyway.

The young waitress shook her head and pointed at the door.
At that moment a woman in a bright red head scarf sitting behind me said loudly “That’s awful, the woman is trying to feed her kids”

“Really?” I snapped “Outside is a BMW waiting to pick her and the other two girls that go round the shops and pubs begging, do you have a fucking BMW waiting on you outside?” I asked.

The Romanian woman butted in “It’s not a BMW it’s an old Mercedes”

“And she can fucking speak English, so the laminated card is defunct” I shouted.

The Romanian woman sneered and turned her back to me and carried on going round the café.

“Well” said the posh red scarved woman “Maybe she is forced to beg and the men are holding her hostage”

“Ok, you call the police then if you believe that” I shouted and saw the Romanian woman give me the finger then leave the café.

The red scarf woman, two waitresses’s and myself rushed to the window to see the Romanian woman get into a big blue Mercedes car and speed off, I stood smugly and pointed at them saying

“My niece lives on a minimum wage, she doesn’t claim benefits and for two days a week due to the low wages of her husband she cannot afford gas to heat her water, if she came in here with two wee Scottish babies and begged for gas money you would shout at her to go get a job, yet a well dressed Romanian manages to get her car repayments from a middle classed guilt ridden mung bean -salad - eating Lefty, aint the world fucked up?”

The people in the café pretended I wasn’t there and they all went back to drinking posh coffee as the Romanian Begging gang drove up further into the West End where posh people feel guilty enough to help fake beggars and poor Scottish people are scared to complain incase it looks like racism.