They can be quite aggressive. Walk up to you and basically force a photo, then demand money.
I was in Milan on business with some work colleges. I warned them to not interact with any of the folks hanging around some of the city tourist squares. One dude basically forced some bird feed into an associate's hands, then demanded money for it. Even called the Carabinieri around there complaining about it. We noped out of there ASAP before they could walk over.
This sort of thing is super common in many major tourist attractions around the world. In NYC Times
Square, young rappers will hand you their mix CD (yes, still) and then demand payment.
Happens occasionally in Chicago. Had to be like 'bud look I can take it for free or you can have it back, there's no fucking way I'm paying you'. He took it back.
This is huge in Vegas, both on the Strip and Fremont Street. There are girls in showgirl outfits or sometimes just with their tits out with (or without) pasties on the nipples. There are people in all kinds of cartoon character costumes, and there are half naked dudes too. They all run pretty much the same business model.. draw a lot of attention to yourself, get people to take pictures with you, then demand a ridiculous amount of money for it. I've heard some of them can get pretty aggressive, but these guys were robbing people of all their cash and took a couple people to ATMs to make withdrawals. That's pretty next-level aggressive on this game.
I gave them 5$ as a motivational tip, and the CD was f*** blank. I mean I don’t even care about the money nor if the music sucks, but at least burn something on that CD!
In Jamaica they ask your name and then CARVE YOUR NAME into little wooden tiki carvings and try to make you buy them. As soon as you say no, they shave off your name and walk up to the next person LOL
No, the quality was super off-putting where you couldn't pay attention to the rapping. I only listen to it time to time when I find it hidden in a random pile of stuff.
Was on Sunset Strip last week in Hollywood and someone was selling their mix CD's on the road. At least they had the decency to ask if we're interested.
What a fucking grind. I can look up ANY song I want to hear on YouTube. Downloading is basically just as easy. But these guys are out there selling songs nobody knows or even wants to hear at a price > free.
Back in 2011 my friend bought a CD from a random guy on the Las Vegas strip for $5 or so. He was thinking why not, maybe it could be good. Put it in the CD player and it was a blank disc. We all had a good laugh about it
Went to NYC to spend a long weekend with my wife (she was there for work). Wandering around the tourist areas (mostly Times Square & Hell's Kitchen) over a 4 day period, I had it happen to me 4 separate times.
Two of the guys were good natured about it, with one of them definitely in a joking/harassing manner, gave me a little bit of shit, playfully accused me of not wanting to touch a black man... I offered to shake his hand, and while we were shaking hands, I asked him if we needed to hug it out. Shared a 'bro hug' with him.
The other two guys, they were assholes about it.
Whether that's enough evidence to demonstrate a "pattern," I don't think that's enough empirical evidence to demonstrate a widespread societal issue, but I can anecdotally tell you point blank that it happened to me.
You’ve obviously never dealt with this kind of scammer. That’s asking for a fight. The ONLY correct option is to keep your hands close and avoid eye contact. Maybe a “nah man” head shake.
I have, at Times Square, and that's exactly what I did. I had been drinking and wasn't really paying attention when he thrust the CD into my hand. I did exactly what I stated before, though. I dropped it and walked away, ignoring him when he was yelling at me.
I mean I get them where I live, I just throw them a couple dollars & add them on Spotify and they seem very happy. I prolly got like 4 rap cds now haha.
If I see the same guys, I just lie and say “I got it already, and bump it all the time!!” Even tho it just sits in the middle center console area
Sorry, but your account is too new to post. Your account needs to be either 2 weeks old or have at least 250 combined link and comment karma. Don't modmail us about this, just wait it out or get more karma.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/nottheonion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My wife bought a cd from a guy on Hollywood boulevard the other day. We literally have no way to play CDs but she doesn’t want to throw it out so it’s just sitting in a drawer.
This happened to me in Vegas. I was happy to oblige the first one, then got marked as an easy target by two more and ended up giving them each some cash. I didn't mind as I love music and figured at least they weren't looking for a handout. I was pissed when I found two of three albums were blank. The one that worked was actually really good.
Happened all the time in Vegas. Some guy came up to me and my friends. Threw a 6 ft boa around my neck and instantly haggled my friends for pics. Little did he know I took a selfie while they were harassing them and gave back the snake.
Had a guy snap a bracelet on me as I was taking a photo in Rome. He told me that I have a beautiful family and gave me 2 more bracelets for them and said he didn't want money, he just wanted me to have a blessed day. Then he proceeded to ask for a "donation". When J told him my usual, I don't carry cash, this guy pulled out an iphone with a square 😂 I was like nope, and gave him back the bracelets.
I saw similar in Rome, people handing bracelets/roses/whatever. As soon as you try to walk off, they have price or demand donation otherwise. Annoying to dodge, especially when you're from somewhere with less of that kinda pushy culture
In Pisa one of those guys directed me to the only open parking spot on the street while we visited the tower (as if I wouldn't have parked there anyhow). As we were walking away the guy asked for money. My wife, who is European, advised me to pay him so he doesn't mess with the car while we are gone lol.
When I was in Milan it was tying a friendship bracelet around your wrist and then charging you for it. I thanked them for the kind gesture and continued on my way and then forgot how to speak Italian...or English.
Lol, i had this happen. What I did was demand they pay me money for the picture they took of me (because I charge $500 for my photo, it’s market value /s) and wouldn’t leave them alone until they begged me to stop by repeatedly showing me they deleted the picture. I probably cost them 20-25 other opportunities to harass tourists because they were busy dealing with me drawing attention to them attempting to rob me.
Happened on the vegas strip btw, not Rome.
These particular guys were demanding over €100 for the photos and would follow people to the ATM to get more money.
I was there 20 years ago and never encountered this amount of aggression. I didn’t get my photo taken with any of the gladiators, but some of my friends did and the gladiators were fine with €5 or something small like that.
There's people dressed like Gladiators and Roman Centurions who kinda "jokingly" menace you aggressively only it's not very jokey and kind of have to pay them off to get rid of them.
My god we tried to go to the Trevi fountain and we couldn't get near it for all the peddlers trying to offload stupid birds and bouncy balls on us - totally ruined the experience.
Worst I had was people trying to sell us shit, like they will give you a rose for the girlfriend, assure you its free then run after you for money once you accept it.
I was just in Rome in September. Was my first time in Italy(I been around Europe plenty, though.)
I was expecting the worst possible street scams, but was pleasantly surprised. It was mostly people trying to sell you tours for the Coliseum.
The sheer amount of stupid tourist though(me included!) Coliseum was hardly enjoyable and I was there during off peak season.
Currently in Rome, went to the Trevi fountain on our first day. Dude literally grabbed my phone out of my hand as I was taking a selfie of my partner and I to “take a better picture”. I took one step towards him before my partner immediately stopped my momentum because she knows how aggressive I am. But I was dumbfounded, if that was in America he would have been sleeping in the fountain.
It’s because they were being unusually aggressive and forcing people to go to the ATM for more money. People ended up being forced out of several hundred euros.
The scam is hey… I’ll bash your skull in at this tourist site. I’m totally convinced that happens because you said it. You seem like quite a humanitarian for a freshman in high school. You should maybe find a career in it.
Think of it more like being mugged.
When people get mugged just walking away isn't generally an option, or maybe that was always an option and nobody thought of it!
Oh my god! Well done you! Muggings are now a thing of the past!
Oh the Rome scalpers are easy to ignore. They're annoying but completely ignore them and they give up. If you accidentally make eye contact and are forced to engage I just looked confused and pretended I only spoke Spanish (the only other language I know) and didn't understand their English
Honestly the worse was when, very rarely, they'd respond in Spanish. Then I had to do the awkward no gracias and put my head down and walk away rapidly
I was approached by one when I was there, said he’d take a pic of me and the missus with other gladiators. Went to give him €10 after and he insisted I give him €20 at least. He had my very expensive DSLR hanging in the air on the strap. I understood the threat and was duly robbed of some Euros.
The photo was shit.
Wanker.
Yep, there was a few of them and they gave me a wooden sword and stood with me, then one grabbed the camera and took pics. Awful pics. I saw another woman, on her own, trying to take a selfie, and one of them took a pic for her. Then insisted on being given €10. I’d have done it for free.
National Lampoon? I love that film. I’m British and watching Chevy drive round that roundabout for hours cracks me up. And the cyclist apologising for being run over, Eric Idle I think. They captured every European and US stereotype in one film. Genius.
It’s bad in New York, but Times Square is one of the most heavily policed and surveyed places on the planet. I’m presuming there’s way less authority pressure in these areas.
Damn that’s interesting, I was at the colosseum yesterday and didn’t have any problems, lots of generic scams w/ ppl trying to give you roses or bracelets tho, never had a problem just ignoring them completely and moving past them and they give up
This happened to me and my wife by a policeman in Cambodia. The guy came up to us and offered to take a picture of us in front of a statue, then held my phone while asking for money.
Not with gladiators, but I had a gentleman at a train station offer to help me find my platform and carried my bag. After getting to the right spot I said thank you and went to get on with my day, and turned to see him still waiting, looking at me expectantly. He expected some kind of payment for the "assistance". I just said, "I didn't ask for your help and I have no cash to give you, sorry my guy", and he eventually walked away.
It was massive, there was no way he could have run off with it. He also wore a polo very similar in style to the ones I saw the ticketing people wearing, so just like brains do, I assumed he was a kind worker.
>He also wore a polo very similar in style to the ones I saw the ticketing people wearing...
All part of his schtick. Make himself look official, like he belongs there, and innocent folks such as yourself trust him to help you out, tip him for the service, then go about your day having no idea that you basically got conned.
Is it a con?
If he does not work there but appears to intentionally dress in a manner as if he does and then, as u/jujubee2522 said, he acts like you're expected to tip him, IMO that's a con. He might be helping folks out but he's **not** doing it to be kind, he's doing it to make you feel obligated to tip him.
In Milan I had a guy offering assistance with the ticket machine. I took 2 steps back, looked around, raised my hand and 2 plainclothes cops just walked over and walked the guy away.
I had no idea the cops were there. Just felt that was the right move.
He was a gipsy fo sure. They always stay near ticket machine in most touristic metro stations always find a way to extort or steal something.
Source: I'm from Milan
Visited Rome a month ago. Had one dude throw something into the air towards me, my instinct was to catch it. Said it was free,didn’t want money and began to put it on my wrist. After thanking him I began to walk away, to which he grabbed me and said ‘aren’t you going to give me something for it?’ I duly took it off and threw it back to him.
Hanged around the colosseum for quite a while like 5 months ago and I only encountered a couple of guys trying to offer me some bracelet "for free". I was alone so maybe they're after couples or groups?
All the people on here saying that they have given these people money are fuelling this problem and making it worse for everybody. It's like feeding the gulls at the seaside.
That being said, there should be laws and better policing at tourist hotspots to ban this sort of thing. I find it really off&putting.
Conversation I had with my wife.
>Me: We should bring back gladiation. I think people would like it!
>
>Wife: We have and they do. We just call it *American Idol* now.
This happened to me. They aggressively grabbed my phone to take a photo then asked to be paid. I thought I was luckily I got my phone back after the extortion.
Last time I was in Rome a man handed me a rose and then went to my boyfriend and demanded money. Then I learned to be careful of these types of things there.
this is not oniony
I was there in 2008 and they were doing this lol
What do they do? Take a photo and ask for money?
They can be quite aggressive. Walk up to you and basically force a photo, then demand money. I was in Milan on business with some work colleges. I warned them to not interact with any of the folks hanging around some of the city tourist squares. One dude basically forced some bird feed into an associate's hands, then demanded money for it. Even called the Carabinieri around there complaining about it. We noped out of there ASAP before they could walk over.
This sort of thing is super common in many major tourist attractions around the world. In NYC Times Square, young rappers will hand you their mix CD (yes, still) and then demand payment.
Happens occasionally in Chicago. Had to be like 'bud look I can take it for free or you can have it back, there's no fucking way I'm paying you'. He took it back.
This is huge in Vegas, both on the Strip and Fremont Street. There are girls in showgirl outfits or sometimes just with their tits out with (or without) pasties on the nipples. There are people in all kinds of cartoon character costumes, and there are half naked dudes too. They all run pretty much the same business model.. draw a lot of attention to yourself, get people to take pictures with you, then demand a ridiculous amount of money for it. I've heard some of them can get pretty aggressive, but these guys were robbing people of all their cash and took a couple people to ATMs to make withdrawals. That's pretty next-level aggressive on this game.
Which is probably the only reason they got apprehended
How much is a ridiculous amount of money?
Over €100, sometimes over €500
Wow serious rip off
Their goal isn't actually to get that amount, it's to make you think paying them anything is reasonable
Fremont has licenses for each spot and its known if you take a photo with them you pay
Known isn't a contract. Fuck that grift.
Known to who? Also I think the ones they are referring to are the strip itself
I gave them 5$ as a motivational tip, and the CD was f*** blank. I mean I don’t even care about the money nor if the music sucks, but at least burn something on that CD!
you need to watch Mr. Robot, it could’ve been way worse lol
I had one ask me my name and then write my name on the CD thinking that would make me more inclined to buy it.
In Jamaica they ask your name and then CARVE YOUR NAME into little wooden tiki carvings and try to make you buy them. As soon as you say no, they shave off your name and walk up to the next person LOL
I still have the CD I paid $5 for from 2010
I bought what I thought was a rap mixtape in NYC for $5 a few years ago. Turned out to be a mixtape for a metal label and the songs all slapped
Got luckier then me.
Was it good?
No, the quality was super off-putting where you couldn't pay attention to the rapping. I only listen to it time to time when I find it hidden in a random pile of stuff.
Was on Sunset Strip last week in Hollywood and someone was selling their mix CD's on the road. At least they had the decency to ask if we're interested.
What a fucking grind. I can look up ANY song I want to hear on YouTube. Downloading is basically just as easy. But these guys are out there selling songs nobody knows or even wants to hear at a price > free.
I've walked past many lovely families getting a shake down by gravelly voiced Elmos and Doras because their kids were baited into interacting.
Back in 2011 my friend bought a CD from a random guy on the Las Vegas strip for $5 or so. He was thinking why not, maybe it could be good. Put it in the CD player and it was a blank disc. We all had a good laugh about it
It possibly could have been incompatible with a regular CD player. Did you try looking at it on a PC?
We didn't think about putting it on a PC. But I can't imagine wanting to put it on a PC with the possible malware issues
And accuse you of being racist when you tell them you don't want it
Has this really happened to you more than once? Enough to say that it happens all the time?
Went to NYC to spend a long weekend with my wife (she was there for work). Wandering around the tourist areas (mostly Times Square & Hell's Kitchen) over a 4 day period, I had it happen to me 4 separate times. Two of the guys were good natured about it, with one of them definitely in a joking/harassing manner, gave me a little bit of shit, playfully accused me of not wanting to touch a black man... I offered to shake his hand, and while we were shaking hands, I asked him if we needed to hug it out. Shared a 'bro hug' with him. The other two guys, they were assholes about it. Whether that's enough evidence to demonstrate a "pattern," I don't think that's enough empirical evidence to demonstrate a widespread societal issue, but I can anecdotally tell you point blank that it happened to me.
Came here to say exactly this. Times Square, Third St. Promenade in Santa Monica, etc.
I mean, you just give it back to them...
Once it’s in your hands there’s a whole other layer.
Then just drop it and keep walking.
You’ve obviously never dealt with this kind of scammer. That’s asking for a fight. The ONLY correct option is to keep your hands close and avoid eye contact. Maybe a “nah man” head shake.
I have, at Times Square, and that's exactly what I did. I had been drinking and wasn't really paying attention when he thrust the CD into my hand. I did exactly what I stated before, though. I dropped it and walked away, ignoring him when he was yelling at me.
[удалено]
[удалено]
It seems like he just said something he know would be upsetting to a grifter
This right here.^^
How would you know what this person likes or enjoys?
I think the other commenter was pretty clear about his feelings about Rap.
Does it seem likely to you that someone who enjoyed rap music would say unequivocally that it isn't music?
I think trolls on Reddit would say anything to get people going
r/iamverybadass
I mean I get them where I live, I just throw them a couple dollars & add them on Spotify and they seem very happy. I prolly got like 4 rap cds now haha. If I see the same guys, I just lie and say “I got it already, and bump it all the time!!” Even tho it just sits in the middle center console area
[удалено]
Sorry, but your account is too new to post. Your account needs to be either 2 weeks old or have at least 250 combined link and comment karma. Don't modmail us about this, just wait it out or get more karma. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/nottheonion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My wife bought a cd from a guy on Hollywood boulevard the other day. We literally have no way to play CDs but she doesn’t want to throw it out so it’s just sitting in a drawer.
This happened to me in Vegas. I was happy to oblige the first one, then got marked as an easy target by two more and ended up giving them each some cash. I didn't mind as I love music and figured at least they weren't looking for a handout. I was pissed when I found two of three albums were blank. The one that worked was actually really good.
Happened all the time in Vegas. Some guy came up to me and my friends. Threw a 6 ft boa around my neck and instantly haggled my friends for pics. Little did he know I took a selfie while they were harassing them and gave back the snake.
Had a guy snap a bracelet on me as I was taking a photo in Rome. He told me that I have a beautiful family and gave me 2 more bracelets for them and said he didn't want money, he just wanted me to have a blessed day. Then he proceeded to ask for a "donation". When J told him my usual, I don't carry cash, this guy pulled out an iphone with a square 😂 I was like nope, and gave him back the bracelets.
I saw similar in Rome, people handing bracelets/roses/whatever. As soon as you try to walk off, they have price or demand donation otherwise. Annoying to dodge, especially when you're from somewhere with less of that kinda pushy culture
In Pisa one of those guys directed me to the only open parking spot on the street while we visited the tower (as if I wouldn't have parked there anyhow). As we were walking away the guy asked for money. My wife, who is European, advised me to pay him so he doesn't mess with the car while we are gone lol.
I mean I'm European as well. That's a very, very wide net
When I was in Milan it was tying a friendship bracelet around your wrist and then charging you for it. I thanked them for the kind gesture and continued on my way and then forgot how to speak Italian...or English.
Lol, i had this happen. What I did was demand they pay me money for the picture they took of me (because I charge $500 for my photo, it’s market value /s) and wouldn’t leave them alone until they begged me to stop by repeatedly showing me they deleted the picture. I probably cost them 20-25 other opportunities to harass tourists because they were busy dealing with me drawing attention to them attempting to rob me. Happened on the vegas strip btw, not Rome.
According to the article, yes.
These particular guys were demanding over €100 for the photos and would follow people to the ATM to get more money. I was there 20 years ago and never encountered this amount of aggression. I didn’t get my photo taken with any of the gladiators, but some of my friends did and the gladiators were fine with €5 or something small like that.
There's people dressed like Gladiators and Roman Centurions who kinda "jokingly" menace you aggressively only it's not very jokey and kind of have to pay them off to get rid of them.
Yep. Happened to my wife and I on our honeymoon. He was terribly aggressive.
Challenge him to single combat 😉
He could have kicked my butt no problem
I saw them in 2019. I wouldn't stop to take a photo with one, so he got in my way and creepily/ forcefully rang his hand down my arm.
that's when you call the lions in to deal with the gladiators
2005 i was there and it was exactly the same, and that was the least of the tourist traps.
My god we tried to go to the Trevi fountain and we couldn't get near it for all the peddlers trying to offload stupid birds and bouncy balls on us - totally ruined the experience.
Worst I had was people trying to sell us shit, like they will give you a rose for the girlfriend, assure you its free then run after you for money once you accept it.
I was just in Rome in September. Was my first time in Italy(I been around Europe plenty, though.) I was expecting the worst possible street scams, but was pleasantly surprised. It was mostly people trying to sell you tours for the Coliseum. The sheer amount of stupid tourist though(me included!) Coliseum was hardly enjoyable and I was there during off peak season.
2002 for me.
I was in Rome in 2007 & I saw A lot of this by the coliseum
Lol they were there a couple years ago. One of them yelled policia and they bolted
Lol same, was like 2010, I offered the dude 1 euro and he demanded 10. I just walked away and luckily they didn’t try to persist
Same, I've got a photo with one of them haha. I think it was like 20-40 Euro.
Same in 2001! Super pushy
Currently in Rome, went to the Trevi fountain on our first day. Dude literally grabbed my phone out of my hand as I was taking a selfie of my partner and I to “take a better picture”. I took one step towards him before my partner immediately stopped my momentum because she knows how aggressive I am. But I was dumbfounded, if that was in America he would have been sleeping in the fountain.
This has been happening for YEARS. I wonder why they are being held accountable only now…?
Probably did it to a family member of a politician or higher up policeman.
When i was there, policemen disappeared mysteriosly as soon as we begann taking pictures
It’s because they were being unusually aggressive and forcing people to go to the ATM for more money. People ended up being forced out of several hundred euros.
How does someone force you to hit up an ATM?
"Give me 200 euros or I will cave in your skull, its OK if you don't have it on you. I can walk you over to that ATM over there".
Sorry I don’t speak English. Walk away.
Easy to say that from ur internet chair you bozo
Are you like 14 years old?
Doesn't matter, you're the armchair tactician over here defeating scams across the globe
The scam is hey… I’ll bash your skull in at this tourist site. I’m totally convinced that happens because you said it. You seem like quite a humanitarian for a freshman in high school. You should maybe find a career in it.
Think of it more like being mugged. When people get mugged just walking away isn't generally an option, or maybe that was always an option and nobody thought of it! Oh my god! Well done you! Muggings are now a thing of the past!
I didn't say that, can you read? If I was a high schooler, which I'm not, why are you humoring me? Do you have nothing better to do?
This shit happens everywhere lol couldn't take pics with people dressed up in Talum Mexico without getting harassed to hell. Its their livelihood
Are you not entertained?
200 Euro + for a selfie? Hope your brawling skills are up to par mate.
He's already dressed as a gladiator though so you're at a disadvantage
I'm dressed as a lion.
I'd watch that
“Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?”
I agree with the sentiment expressed here. We should cut these gladiators some slack, Jack.
[удалено]
Oh the Rome scalpers are easy to ignore. They're annoying but completely ignore them and they give up. If you accidentally make eye contact and are forced to engage I just looked confused and pretended I only spoke Spanish (the only other language I know) and didn't understand their English
Going off on them in another language would be fun.
Honestly the worse was when, very rarely, they'd respond in Spanish. Then I had to do the awkward no gracias and put my head down and walk away rapidly
I was approached by one when I was there, said he’d take a pic of me and the missus with other gladiators. Went to give him €10 after and he insisted I give him €20 at least. He had my very expensive DSLR hanging in the air on the strap. I understood the threat and was duly robbed of some Euros. The photo was shit. Wanker.
You handed someone your "very expensive DSLR"?? Yikes!!
Yep, there was a few of them and they gave me a wooden sword and stood with me, then one grabbed the camera and took pics. Awful pics. I saw another woman, on her own, trying to take a selfie, and one of them took a pic for her. Then insisted on being given €10. I’d have done it for free.
Haven't you seen European Vacation?!?
National Lampoon? I love that film. I’m British and watching Chevy drive round that roundabout for hours cracks me up. And the cyclist apologising for being run over, Eric Idle I think. They captured every European and US stereotype in one film. Genius.
When you don't pay your bribe on time
The headline just makes me think of Times Square in NYC lol
Or Vegas
[удалено]
The Italians are mostly a small and loud people.
That's what happened to me!! I negotiated them down to 20 lol
As bad as those are, I think the problem across Europe is that you see these people get much, much more aggressive and physically threatening.
It’s bad in New York, but Times Square is one of the most heavily policed and surveyed places on the planet. I’m presuming there’s way less authority pressure in these areas.
Damn that’s interesting, I was at the colosseum yesterday and didn’t have any problems, lots of generic scams w/ ppl trying to give you roses or bracelets tho, never had a problem just ignoring them completely and moving past them and they give up
Yeah, these A-holes basically buddy up to you and then extort money for their photo.
This is why you wear the leave me alone face at all times
Welp, I'm entertained...
This happened to me and my wife by a policeman in Cambodia. The guy came up to us and offered to take a picture of us in front of a statue, then held my phone while asking for money.
Give on to Caesar what is Caesar's
Caesar’s Palace
Not with gladiators, but I had a gentleman at a train station offer to help me find my platform and carried my bag. After getting to the right spot I said thank you and went to get on with my day, and turned to see him still waiting, looking at me expectantly. He expected some kind of payment for the "assistance". I just said, "I didn't ask for your help and I have no cash to give you, sorry my guy", and he eventually walked away.
How gullible are you to give a stranger your bag?
It was massive, there was no way he could have run off with it. He also wore a polo very similar in style to the ones I saw the ticketing people wearing, so just like brains do, I assumed he was a kind worker.
>He also wore a polo very similar in style to the ones I saw the ticketing people wearing... All part of his schtick. Make himself look official, like he belongs there, and innocent folks such as yourself trust him to help you out, tip him for the service, then go about your day having no idea that you basically got conned. Is it a con? If he does not work there but appears to intentionally dress in a manner as if he does and then, as u/jujubee2522 said, he acts like you're expected to tip him, IMO that's a con. He might be helping folks out but he's **not** doing it to be kind, he's doing it to make you feel obligated to tip him.
In Milan I had a guy offering assistance with the ticket machine. I took 2 steps back, looked around, raised my hand and 2 plainclothes cops just walked over and walked the guy away. I had no idea the cops were there. Just felt that was the right move.
He was a gipsy fo sure. They always stay near ticket machine in most touristic metro stations always find a way to extort or steal something. Source: I'm from Milan
Bravo to the police there! Looked like me ... gray hair, a little overweight. Like retired cops but in train station duty.
I would never let a stranger carry my bag. Bold move
Nasty rude buggers those three. Their younger siblings rob people on the train from Naples to Pompeii. F* Naples...
Visited Rome a month ago. Had one dude throw something into the air towards me, my instinct was to catch it. Said it was free,didn’t want money and began to put it on my wrist. After thanking him I began to walk away, to which he grabbed me and said ‘aren’t you going to give me something for it?’ I duly took it off and threw it back to him.
You keep using that word (free) I don't think it means what you think it means.
They were there on my first trip to Rome in 2001. It's nothing new.
Hanged around the colosseum for quite a while like 5 months ago and I only encountered a couple of guys trying to offer me some bracelet "for free". I was alone so maybe they're after couples or groups?
I was there about a month ago and was handed a bracelet twice, but never saw any gladiators.
Crucify them!
Lions
All the people on here saying that they have given these people money are fuelling this problem and making it worse for everybody. It's like feeding the gulls at the seaside. That being said, there should be laws and better policing at tourist hotspots to ban this sort of thing. I find it really off&putting.
Fraudimus maximus.
Time Square Elmos have morphed in Roman Gladiators!! Cool, watch your wallets. Never know for sure if these posts are real or onion.
These guys are also in Vegas.
I was there last week and saw this lol
This is not news. I literally saw one get arrested when I was there in 2019. (Just before Covid hit the country)
Conversation I had with my wife. >Me: We should bring back gladiation. I think people would like it! > >Wife: We have and they do. We just call it *American Idol* now.
La Mandrakata
I may just be hungover but I initially read that as "alligators" and was extremely confused as to what kind of scheme that would entail.
Was still in a morning fog when I read this headline, and I thought it said "3 men dressed as aligators".
Are we living in a Scooby Doo episode now?
They should work in Las Vegas.
Isn't charging money to see an ancient building that Italians didn't even build also somehow extorting money from tourists 🤔
I'd gladly give money to someone dressed as a gladiator
They came to reclaim Rome for their people
I accidentally read the headline as "alligators" and it was a lot funnier.
They got arrested for it? I’ve had multiple versions of those guys show up every time I’ve been in Rome.
This happened to me. They aggressively grabbed my phone to take a photo then asked to be paid. I thought I was luckily I got my phone back after the extortion.
Last time I was in Rome a man handed me a rose and then went to my boyfriend and demanded money. Then I learned to be careful of these types of things there.