I'm a heartless bastard I know....

[Nickatilynx]

Seems someone called Karla (with minimal posts) is trying to raise money for Kre8tor and wife who have been hurt by Wilma.

Call me a heartless bastard but does this entire thread really sound like...

"Help us , we are broke ass. Fortunately a hurricane has come near so we can use this as an excuse to scrounge some money"

????

Maybe I am just becoming a cynic in my old age...

http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=533168

[Peaches]

I am apparently uncompassionate AND dumb for not understanding how someone could run out of cash in a week yet still have access to Paypal and Epassporte funds I honestly thought they were out of money because the banks were closed/electronic funds didn't work!

[Anthony]

I smell bullshit.

[Nickatilynx]

Originally Posted by Peaches

I am apparently uncompassionate AND dumb for not understanding how someone could run out of cash in a week yet still have access to Paypal and Epassporte funds I honestly thought they were out of money because the banks were closed/electronic funds didn't work!

Yeah thats what I noticed too...

I also noticed that this Karla has like 10 posts and only posts about raising money.

Didn't he used to run ANS ?

[Anthony]

Very sad.

[Nickatilynx]

I still can't work this one out....

"Send us paypals"
"Most banks and atms can't dispense cash"

OK...so why send paypals?

Also everyone on ANS is being so nice.

But no one has mentioned if he hadn't got canned from ANS he might not need any paypals...lol

This is the weirdest business I've ever been in.... LOL

[Peaches]

And it just gets weirder and weirder

BTW, at least they HAVE a generator. I'm in the process of buying one. Please Paypal me some $$$. Thank you in advance kind folks

(yes, Hellpuppy, I know I have one I'm afraid to use but it's been given away, just not picked up )

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Peaches

And it just gets weirder and weirder

BTW, at least they HAVE a generator. I'm in the process of buying one. Please Paypal me some $$$. Thank you in advance kind folks

(yes, Hellpuppy, I know I have one I'm afraid to use but it's been given away, just not picked up )

Are you getting one for to power the whole house? Or just the fridge, small a/c, tv, etc?

[Peaches]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Are you getting one for to power the whole house? Or just the fridge, small a/c, tv, etc?

It's a whole house - 12KW but I'm not hooking the AC or heat pump onto it. I don't have a large propane tank (and no one will deliver a larger one - I think this one went in before the house was built) and it would really suck up the gas.

[Peaches]

Oh, so send money for my propane too!

[Osiris]

It's one thing if they didn't have access to their accounts like us. We couldn't get shit for money from the atms or banks out here and it sucked ass.

Things still aren't quite normal..

[Trev]

Wouldn't it be better to just flat out say "hey we're skint" and hope that friends offer a leg back up

[MorganGrayson]

In fairness, the recipients of the intended donations didn't start the thread...as it is stated, that is. Someone else did.

However, if this person has a history of "collecting," it does raise questions.

I'll let everybody else tangle with the other issues that can be raised.

I'm used to California disastors where there is little or no advance warning. Living in a state of readiness is still highly suggested. Even for earthquakes, which just show up, no warning whatsoever, it is strongly suggested that every family have a metal trash can with a tight lid that contains sufficient water, food, medication, pet supplies, blankets, first aid kit, etc., etc., to last for all family members for three days. (And no, I don't have one. It's been on my "mean to" list for 17 years. In my small defense, I live on top of a hill in East San Diego county, and our earthquakes are more of the "huh, we just had an earthquake...." category.)

Our other big one is fire. Keep the "irreplaceables" in one place; have enough pet carriers, and get the hell out when it's first suggested. We were more than ready for that during the "Fire Storm" of a couple of years ago. With cash, as my husband hit the ATM the minute we could smell the smoke.

[ReighlynnRaine]

Ya know I keep meaning to set up one of those kits too. But thankfully we live farther away from where the fire danger was.

[Funbrunette]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I smell bullshit.

Holy fuck is your avatar freaky dude!!!!!

[PornoDoggy]

So if I understand the great minds correctly, anyone who might have been put in a position of needing extra help by the hurricanes is unworthy of receiving it?

The whole discussion reminds me of something I posted a while back - class has nothing to do with how much money you have.

[Peaches]

Originally Posted by PornoDoggy

So if I understand the great minds correctly, anyone who might have been put in a position to need extra help by the hurricanes is unworthy of receiving it?

The whole discussion reminds me of something I posted a while back - class has nothing to do with how much money you have.

No, you don't understand it correctly I misunderstood the original post and thought they had no money because the ATMs/Banks weren't open and questioned how Paypal would do any good in that situation. When I was later told that they had access to ATMs/Banks but were out of money after less than a week, I merely pointed out that obviously the situation they were in didn't seem to be "hurricane" related. Ergo the funds were helping them out of a bind which happened before Wilma hit (which is fine) but seemingly put forth in the guise of "but they were victims of a hurricane".

In addition, the the person posting asking for funds seems to post nothing EXCEPT asking for funds so it looks a bit suspicious.

But the info to donate is there in the GFY thread and I'm sure they'll appreciate whatever you send them

[Evil Chris]

I guess I must be lucky to live where I do.
The absolute worst weather we can expect here is either an ice-storm (which in 1998 knocked power out for over a month), or a really bad 24 hour blizzard.

The ice storm situation happens about once every 50 years, and blizzards occur yearly however we're so well set up to remove snow, you wouldn't know it hit by 7am the following morning.

[sarettah]

Originally Posted by Peaches

BTW, at least they HAVE a generator. I'm in the process of buying one. Please Paypal me some $$$. Thank you in advance kind folks

How much ya need ?

[sarettah]

You always got to watch for the cons. If it smells bad to you, don't go near it.

[Peaches]

Originally Posted by sarettah

You always got to watch for the cons. If it smells bad to you, don't go near it.

I don't think it was a con, per se. I think Bratt and Kre8tor really need help. How much of it is because of the hurricane is what I question. I feel bad for them because they weren't the ones going to boards telling everyone they were out of money

[Anthony]

I just talked to Mike Sperber, a friend of mine down here in SFla, who is less jaded about these Internet Help me threads.

Mike has brought supplies and gas to Kreator and Bratt, and has verified their situation as bad, broken foot, tree in house, etc.

The thread smelled of bullshit, and we asked questions about it, as no one could verify. Since, indeed the story is true, I asked Mike if Kreator or Bratt needed anymore supplies, gas, etc. and was told they should be all stocked up by now.

Why they needed paypals, epassporte, etc is still beyond me as there isn't really a way to get them if the banks and atms are still down.

[Peaches]

Thanks for the follow up Ant! It does indeed seem like someone not really acting on their behalf tried to play savior but wasn't really going after the help they needed. Glad Michael could

[Nickatilynx]

Alls well that ends well , then.

I saw in that thread on GFY that Bratt is employed by ANS too.

Good for Michael

[justb]

I just wish Floridians would pay attention to the news at the beginning of each hurricane season when they talk about having hurricane supplies!!!!!!

We have ourselves stocked and ready. I would be fine with no power as we have enough water and non-perishable food for at least a week and we have 25 gallons of gasoline in case we have to ever get the hell out of town.

[MorganGrayson]

PD...no. Anyone who needs help is worthy of receiving it, no matter what their situation, no matter what anyone else feels they should or should not have done to prevent...yadda, yadda, yadda. Simply needing help is enough.

I donated money to an animal rescue cause once, immediately getting myself on every mailing list for every conservation/wildlife/whatever fund raising effort in the English speaking world. Now, oddly, many of these charities offered me "inducements" to donate. Some of them were Russ plush animals of the animal on the brink of extinction. If one has small children, or a lady that is a collector, one knows exactly how expensive a Russ plush animal is. I wondered how in the world they could afford to do this. I'm sure it came off their taxes somehow, but it raised questions as to how much of my donation was actually going to help "the cause."

Those questions have to be asked, and asked *before* you donate to anything. During Katrina, I was given the opportunity to donate to specific people, people I cherish, the "collection" run by someone I trust implicitly to make sure every penny got to where it was intended to go. I gave twice, without worrying that the money wasn't really needed or wouldn't go to where it was supposed to go.

I have a dear friend who spent a fortune assisting Katrina victims, with money and actually driving supplies into the area.

Now, with the mad fund raising going on, my question to the world is: why was that even necessary? Why wasn't FEMA, the Red Cross, etc., etc. on point? I found out through her and others that the ones doing the actual work in these areas were small groups of individuals: churches did great; the locals themselves did great; friends and family of those in the areas did great. Those individual people were the ones handing out food, water and assitance. (Somebody told me the Red Cross showed up for their photo op then vanished.)

Asking questions before you donate is just sensible. It doesn't mean that the two webmasters aren't deserving. They are. It only means that it would be very nice to know that one's donation will end up in their hands. With Anthony's post, it seems that a more effective donation would have been to Mike Sperber with the request that he use it to buy supplies and deliver them.

I hope somebody thought to bring Kre8tor a huge bottle of pain killers.