{"id":2971,"date":"2009-01-15T09:06:37","date_gmt":"2009-01-15T15:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=2971"},"modified":"2009-01-15T09:06:37","modified_gmt":"2009-01-15T15:06:37","slug":"here-we-go-again-jumper-cable-guy-is-back-on-the-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/15\/here-we-go-again-jumper-cable-guy-is-back-on-the-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"Here we go again… Jumper Cable Guy is back on the streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

$\"\"$ <\/a>I realize most of you are quite tired of seeing this pic, but I feel I have to post it again for Downtowners who are new to my blog.\u00a0 Jumper Cable Guy (pictured at left) is back on the streets of Downtown.\u00a0 You can click the pic to see a larger image of him.<\/p>\n

Jumper Cable Guy will approach you and tell you that his truck broke down and he needs 7 dollars and some odd amount of change to buy jumper cables.\u00a0 He’ll tell you that he’s a veteran and a former teacher.\u00a0 If you have jumper cables, he’ll tell you he has a heavy-duty truck and needs bigger cables than the ones you have, and again ask for money.<\/p>\n

The thing is, JCG’s truck breaks down many, many times a day.\u00a0 It seems to break down around Main and Union a lot, and also around the Civil Rights Museum, and lately he’s been seen a lot in Midtown.<\/p>\n

This is probably his fifth time to have his pic posted on my blog.\u00a0 He knows he’s on here too.\u00a0 Last spring he came up to me on the street and introduced himself.\u00a0 “Hey Paul.\u00a0 I’m Jumper Cable Guy.\u00a0 I just wanted to apologize, man.\u00a0 Yeah, I’ve been out here scamming people.\u00a0 I’m a former teacher and I needed money and got desperate.\u00a0 But I ain’t going to do it no more.”\u00a0 Yet stories continued to come in to the Handling-Panhandling<\/a> forum of him approaching Downtowners and Midtowners with the same old song and dance.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I was out taking my “what’s the Fire Sale” walk, headed north on Second when H-P co-moderator Mike King pulled over in his car.\u00a0 “You’re about to run into Jumper Cable Guy,” he told me.\u00a0 Sure enough, I saw him on the Main Street Mall talking to three tourists.\u00a0 I followed behind them until the group got to Main and Beale.\u00a0 At that point JCG turned around, saw me, hastily bid his guests goodbye, and headed south on Main.<\/p>\n

I called Mike.\u00a0 “You still out in your car?\u00a0 JCG is headed south.”\u00a0 Mike caught up with him and followed him to an apartment building on Abel Street.\u00a0 Abel is a little street in the South of Forum area that runs parallel to Third.\u00a0 It’s the section of Downtown that hasn’t been redeveloped yet, and there are several slummy apartment buildings and rooming houses on it and the next street over, Allen.\u00a0 We frequently see panhandlers heading toward these two streets after they’ve collected money.\u00a0 Two residences on Abel were busted by Blue Crush in 2007 as crack houses.\u00a0 I’m not implying JCG was headed there to buy drugs – he may legitimately live there – but Abel is a very common destination for our top panhandlers, for whatever reason.<\/p>\n

Jumper Cable Guy has been wearing a navy blue jacket with a light blue V-shaped stripe on the back lately, and a light colored cap.\u00a0 He looks like he’s lost a little weight since the pic shown here was taken of him last spring.\u00a0 If you see him on the streets, yell out, “HEY, JUMPER CABLE GUY!” to him, especially if he’s talking to passersby.\u00a0 Let’s let him know his actions have seen the light of day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"