MUSCATINE, Iowa (WQAD) – A good Samaritan found out not everyone asking for help wants it.
The Iowa man offered two panhandlers a job. What they told him, and what he did next, has gone viral online.
Some would call it tough love.
On the corner in Muscatine, Iowa, you can find panhandlers several times a week. Two are regulars.
After feeling bad for the boys, Mike Pothoff offered them a job at his business.
“I said, ‘You’re hired,’ and they said, ‘We’re not from around here,’ and I said, ‘Well, you’re here,’ and then they just smirked,” Pothoff said.
Over the weekend, the same boys were back at it — holding signs saying they’re broke and hungry.
Once again, Pothoff offered them a job. They declined. So Pothoff decided to join them.
Pictures captured Pothoff standing on the corner with them, holding his own sign reading, “Offered these guys a job. They said no. Don’t give them money.”
The picture has gone viral.
“All of a sudden, it just went kaboosh. I mean it just blew up,” Pothoff said.
He said he doesn’t have a problem with panhandlers. He says he wants to make sure they really need the help.
“It upsets me that we have younger kids or people that can work that are doing that,” he said.
It’s not the first time Pothoff says he has offered a job to a panhandler to only have them turn the offer down.
“It’s about, you know, people that really do need money, and maybe they do, but I think they can work, too,” he said.
And he says it won’t be the last time either.
“If they’re going to stand out there and hold a sign and ask for money and say they’re homeless, I can hold a sign out there: I offered these guys a job. Don’t give them money,” he said.
