Here I am on a Friday evening and I don’t feel like writing a long winded blog but I must share with the readers what happen to me during the last 48 hours.
Please be warn in advance??? IT’S A LONG ONE!!!
Yesterday morning as I promise the girl at Video King on Regent Street the day before?
I picked up the bottle and tried to get the bottle filled for the needy people in this City.
It was cold and windy.
I put the bottle at the corner of Regent and King street.
I’m certain that many people had some flashback once they saw me standing at the corner.
Their minds must have went back in time when I was all over the place collecting names for my petition asking the Government to do a study on the issue of Ritalin.
Over 10,000 people signed the piece of paper but Bernard Lord never listened to the voters.
Ok…never mind that story.
Around one hour later, Andy Scott showed up and gave me $20.00 in my hand. I got no money and I did think about taking the money for my personal use and no one
will know any better but I said to myself - Sorry! Not going to happen!
I put the money in the bottle with Andy standing by my side.
I noticed that he wasn’t wearing his new glasses and this is a good move from his part!!!...lol…
I told a woman what Andy did and she said - I’m matching Andy 20 dollars and I hope that he matched mine?
I never saw Andy afterwards to tell him of the challenge?
After standing there for 4 hours I was getting tired but I found out that people are followers and not leaders.
Large group of bureaucrats would walked by and I would say - Penny for the food bank???
If no one stops? No on gives!!!
If a couple of people stops? All will join in.
People are funny!
I’m certain that I collected between $150 to $200!!!
I said to myself? Heck!!! If all those loonies, toonies and bills would change into pennies?
The bottle would be filled!!!
One woman came by with a lunch telling me that I need food for the cold?
That was nice of her!
I carried the bottle back to the store. It was heavier than usual and that was a good thing!
That evening, I felt bad that the bottle wasn’t full so I decided to continue collecting money the next morning and which I did.
I wish to add that I took many pictures but none turned out today. I must have pressed a wrong button somewhere.
Oh well? C’est la vie!
I noticed a small shopping cart near a building and I carried the cart with me so I could put the bottle in the cart and push the bottle till King’s place.
It would be a different area but a little further.
Once there, I noticed a Native Panhandler standing against the wall.
I asked the guy if he mind that I place the bottle in his area?
He told me to go ahead and quickly disappeared from my sight.
The guy knew that it was for a good cause I guess.
Once again, people were generous!
All I told the people - There’s a woman in a store who wanted the bottle filled so since I have ADHD and being French?
I’m putting these two combinations to good use. Lol…
I bumped into Father White and the priest told me that I was doing a good thing.
Hey? A Priest backing me up??? Nothing else really matters.
After a while, a security guard name - Bill came out to check on me but once he found out who I was?
There were no problems. I met Bill during my protest and he’s a nice guy.
Some people are strange because someone complain to security that I was collecting pennies??? Come on???
Give me a break!
I noticed that the sun was hiding behind the building and I might add that it was warmer than the evening before so I decided to move in front of the Nova Scotia Bank.
Once there, it was funny because I would leave to bottle by itself and stood in the hallway of the Bank.
People would look at all the money in the bottle but there were nobody in sight. It was funny!
I noticed that people were busy to hit the crosswalk light so therefore too busy to stop and put pennies in a bottle so I decided to move back in front of King’s
Place.
Once there, it didn’t take long for me to receive a visitor.
It was a police Officer from the Fredericton Police Forces.
His name was Hachey I guess. I’m not sure.
He knew exactly who I was and he was friendly.
He asked me what I was doing?
I told the officer that I was collecting money for the poor!
He asked me for papers?
I told the officer to phone the Mayor Bard Woodside? He said that the poor people should get off their butt and get a job.
Well. I’m working big times.
He continued asking me – Who does that bottle belong too?
I explained the whole story and the officer told me in a stern matter- I’m going to check on your story Charles? If you’re lying? I’m coming back and charge
you with huge fraud! Big times!
I quickly said - FRAUD??? MY GOD??? THE IRVINGS MEDIA WOULD HAVE A FIELD DAY WITH THE STORY!!!
He quickly answered - Why makes you think that the Irvings even care about you Charles???
He must have been reading this blog site?...lol
I even went as far asking the officer to put a penny in the bottle?
He quickly answered- I don’t contribute to fraud!
I was also stern with the officer and answered - You go and check my story and I expect you to come back with an apology!!!
I noticed that a couple of plain dress officers stopped to asks if everything was ok?
Once I took the camera out? They quickly left.
Before leaving, he ordered me off the front of King’s place. I went back to the bank and I took many pictures but they never came out!
Around 20 minutes later, I noticed the police officer coming back to meet me.
I told the guy that it’s nice for him to come back and apologizes!
Well? He wasn’t in an apologizing mood!
He told me that the woman told him to tell me that she wants her bottle back!!!
I told the police officer that I will return the bottle but only after the bottle is full!
He told me to bring the bottle back right now or he was going to do it for me!!!
It was only 1:00pm and I’m certain that the bottle could have got filled.
I reminded the officer that I was staying put so I suggested that he should take the bottle back to her.
He gladly obliged and I should have hid the cart because he put the bottle in the cart and started the long ride to his car.
I followed the guy and took pictures.
It was funny seeing an officer pushing a shopping cart with a huge bottle full of money. He walked all under these pillars!
I might add that it sure attracted a lot of attention from the Citizens.
It must have been a long ride for him?
I followed him and shouted before he went into his car that he makes certain that the bottle goes back to the woman!!!!!!!!!!!
He reminded me that he wasn’t going to lose his job over a bottle full of money.
I also noticed that many citizens were watching the situation very closely and many came to me asking what was going on???
I also found out that word spread on the streets very quickly that the police confronted Charles.
One individual told me that I was being charge with fraud.
People do talk a lot!!!...lol…I’m a fine person to say this!!..lol…
Anyway…I went inside the Mall at King’s place and I was surprise to see a table saying - Fredericton Food Bank!
They were asking for donations. I didn’t have a clue they were in there.
I noticed two older individuals near the table and I approached the head guy by saying - There’s a guy outside collecting pennies for the food bank!
The guy in a stern voice told me- Yes I know and HE’S A FRAUD!!!
I said - Really? The guy is a fraud???
He continue by telling me that they never gave the guy the ok to collect money.
They don’t know who the guy is so therefore he’s a fraud!!!
I let the guy vent a little for a few minutes.
I told the volunteer for the food bank that I was the guy!!! My name is Charles
LeBlanc.
He quickly said- Ohh Charlie??? He told me that he knew of me.
I might add that he didn’t look like a happy camper!
I don’t know if knowing me was a good or bad thing?...lol...I believe that I'm the only non working non criminal who's on the top ten most wanted list in the City! Sigh....
He let it known that he was on the board of directors of the Fredericton food bank and he was a former cop.
He began asking me if I knew the girl who started this collection of pennies?
I asked the former police officer if someone from the Food Bank could go and collect the money at the store?
He told me that they don’t do this kind of act. If she had money, it’s her responsibility to bring the money at the food bank.
The building is located on top of a huge hill so this will definitely be out of the question. Can you imagine a woman carrying a huge bottle full of money
up a hill in a shopping cart?
I told the guy that she was a very nice girl. I left the area and noticed that many people were questioning me of the confrontation with the police.
Once at the store where the woman works, she told me some bad news.
The police officer bought the bottle back but he slammed the bottle on the floor in a hard force.
It broke the plastic bottle!
I guess it was too heavy for the cop.
She asked him if he had some tape to patch the little hole but the cop said that it wasn’t his problem and quickly left the store.
This rude act got me upset but I couldn’t worry about The cops.
There was a hole in the bottle and we had to get rid of the bottle!
We put a plastic bag at the bottom and I put the huge bottle on my shoulder and started the long walk to King’s Place so I could give the guy who accused me of
fraud the money.
The bottle was so heavy that I made a stop halfway and people once again started to put money in the bottle.
I told them it was ok! Mind you, I didn’t want more trouble with City’s Finest on this issue.
Can you imagine if they seen me walking down the street with the bottle?
I would definitely land in jail!!...lol…
The question was this? Could I make it to the table of the food bank in the mall without the S.W.A.T. team coming to arrest me?
Once there, I place the huge bottle on their table very gently. < not like the cop did in the store >
I expected a smile on the guy’s face? I got nothing!!!!!
He looked angry???
He asked me about the hole in the bottle?
I told him the story but he didn’t seem to believe me?
At that moment, I almost call the police myself so he could tell this dude that I didn’t cause the damage to steal some money.
It was a very strange atmosphere.
It got stranger once a woman walked buy and try to put a 20 dollar bill in the bottle?
The guy from the board of director quickly stopped the woman and directed her to a small box.
The bill didn’t go right in and I started to push the money in the box but the guy quickly grabbed the box from me and made certain that the money was all in there.
You know what???
It was at that exact moment that I believe this guy from the Fredericton Food Bank
truly believe that I was a thief!!!!!
I’m sorry but he crossed the line and it was going to be a war! He wants to play games???? I love games!!!
I started to get upset with the guy.
I reminded the guy that there must be $300.00 in that bottle and the woman lives in a boarding House which has many tenants. She wants to cook a turkey for the
poor people on Christmas Day.
Could it be possible that you could drop over a turkey to her store???
He let it known very loud and clear and if she’s not registered? There will be no turkey!
Rude??? My God??? This guy was bad!
I offer to shake his hand to wish him a Joyeux Noel but he refuse to shake my hand.
I believe that I know the problem?
These people are from the Board of Directors and they are strong believers that the poor are down and these people are way way up there.
We people don’t miggle with those high class people.
I was getting upset and I might write a little letter to the editor in the Irving’s paper about this one?
I might write one? No!!! I will write one!!!
Hey? People were generous towards me and there’s still good people around this City.
I always said this anyway but there’s a selected few that we go out of their way to cause me from great harm but I don’t care because these actions only enforce me to battle bigger and stronger.
I must write that letter to let the people know that the nice woman at the store and myself weren’t a couple of fraud artists in the Capital!!!
I do understand that you have to get a control of people collecting money but it just work this way and what’s done is done!!!
This was a legitimate case and I should have receive some respect or a congratulating
note!
By the way? What happen to the bottle? Where did it go?
I will tell you one thing right now!!!!
I will drive those people at the Fredericton Food Bank till they tell me how much money was in that bottle so I can let the people know the amount?
You don’t believe me? Watch me!!!!!
If the Fredericton Food Bank believed that I am a fraud? If I was them? I would not make an enemy with this guy!!!
In closing, this just happen this way. A working woman was just trying to help the poor in this City.
I seen the bottle for the last 6 weeks and something had to give.
This little 10 year old always put her allowance in the bottle for the poor. She couldn't understand what happened to the bottle? We couldn't tell her that it was a cop who destroyed the jug. Would the Fredericton Food bank believe she's a fraud also?
I took it on my own to help her fill up the bottle and at the end? It cause a lot of people a lot of hardship! Well? You know what? If I had to do it
all over again? I would do the same action.
As I said- The Priest supported me so therefore nothing else really matters.
As I wrote on many occasions, there’s never a dull moment in this activist life in the Capital!
Joyeux Noel!!!
10 comments:
Great job Charlie, But I'll tell you this, You are absolutely right when you say the Police Officer owes you an apology and so does the guy at king's place.
I think they were both being total morons and should be labeled as such.
This was indeed an act of kindness from you and the store clerk of which I've had the pleasure of meeting earlier this spring when I was in the Capital.
Appreciation comes in many forms but you have obviously been the victim of the opposite reaction to say the least.
The officer in question owes you an apology as well as the cost of the Bottle in question to the store clerk.
I understand that this sort of money raising cannot be done by just anyone as there truly is the temptation of fraud even at the expense of the poor but as you have said, The Mall Security guard knew who you were and so do most of the Police Officers in Fredericton and proper courtesy was not given it's just due.
Lastly the Officer in question also owes the public an apology for his statement that poor should get off their butts and get a job as the word or phrase ((POOR)) has a Hugh variance attached to it.
I want to say a hell of a lot more on this issue but I'll stop there and go calm down as I'm pissed to the gills with the two people in question after reading this story.
Please give your friend a hug for me and tell her that her effort was well worth the task and that if it was not for people like yourself and her there would be even less money to go around at this time of the year.
Again I must say, great job to both of you!
Good work Charles, it's more than the Priest who are rooting for you. To be somewhat fair there are an awful lot of con artists out there, and if I were manning the booth for the food bank and somebody told me that some guy we'd never heard of was collecting money out front for the food bank then I'd probably say you were a fraud too. There would be no way of knowing.
As for cops those guys seem to be trained in how to be rude and nothing ever surprises me when it comes to them. Definitely write your letter to the editor, but don't lose any sleep over it. The Good Lord knows the truth-and so do lots of people here.
Boy oh boy, after reading your story I'm just sitting here in my chair staring at the wall in bewildermint ? No kidding.
The more I think of this whole situation, the store gal let you take the bottle to go collect for the cause, you're hassled by this one and that one.
Told your doing a Fraud Number !
To accuse somebody of Fraud without any proof ? Fraud is a Crime. Was there any wording from the people who hassled you with
" On The Suspicion Of Fraud Charles " ?
The heck with it, just call around for a Philadelphia lawyer who'll sue somebody, maybe the City,.
Some Lawyers will take on a case, and you don't pay the Lawyer unless they win the case. And then it's a percentage of what is won in the Court Of Law.
If you know Andy Scott, take it to his attention, take it to Brad Woodside, at least to look into the whole deal.
I thought people were Innocent until proven Guilty of a Crime.
You were accused of Fraud, but you weren't arrested, or even taken in for Questioning ?
Yeah, go for the Lawyer, and Volunteer to take a Polygraph.
This whole thing is B.S.
Hey Charlie,
WOW! What can I say. I havent been reading your emails for about a
year
and a half and I just checked out your site. Way to *#@!^*& go. I
can't
believe it, links, photos the whole 9 yards. It's almost becoming
addictive
for me. I love to know what is going on around the city, it must be
the
gossipiness in me. I printed off the picture of the super hero ADHD
man
(aka Charlie leblanc) and I'll give it to pat next time I see her.
She
will like that. Anyway Bravo.
i read your story and it was breath-taking. But one thing: Were the cops lying when they said the girl at the store wanted her bottle back? And if not, why would she say that?
I believe that she didn't wnat any trouble because she knows how I am? You know...take the easy route out but she was dissapointed but not by the way the people donated the money in the bottle. People still have a heart!
what a blog this story! I feel for you Charles, but I gotta say this
1. We know you are not crooked and not a thief but..
2. It would be like me or someone else grabbing a Romero House bottle of coins out of a corner store here in Saint John and going out on the street with it to collect money, with no permission from Romero House and with Romero House not having any knowledge that I was doing that.
3. I know your heart was in the right place.
4. Did I read correctly? In this blog did you say that the $300 collected was for the store clerk to make Christmas dinners for all her friends at the boarding house? Nice thought, but I thought it was a Fredericton Food Bank money bottle? I'm confused. Maybe someone can straighten me out on this one.
it is true, many times cops over-extend their authority, to be sure. All I know is panhandling is against the law here in Saint John anyways. Sounds more like you were panhandling with that bottle Charles, seeing that you didn't have permission from the Fredericton Food Bank to solicit on their behalf.
I'm not a poor basher, becaue I'm poor myself, but if I was one of the people in charge at the Fredericton Food Bank I'd be a little ticked off too.
It's called common sense.
Having said that, $300 is NOT a lot of money these days. It would hardly fill the cavities in an MLA's teeth at the dinner table!
Why dosen't someone out there just cut this lady clerk a cheque so she can have her Christmas dinner?
Come on rich people, loosen the purse strings, it's HO HO TIME!
I forgot to add this to the blog and I always say it when I tell the story. I truly understand that you cnnot have every Tom Dick and Harry collecting money from on behalf of different groups because it would be totally out of control. I understand this but it just happen thi way. I had too much time on my hand and the girl wish the bottle was full for the Food Bank so therefore I took it on my own and collected pennies. Of all the panhandlers bumming money on the streets? I taught that I would give it a try. Don't forget? I only wanted pennies? The bottom line of this blog? I truly didn't like the attitude of the person from the food bank.
Charles,
That reminds me of a story a farmer told me from Nova Scotia one time when I was hitchiking between Truro and Amherst. He picked me up in what looked like one of those trucks with live chickens falling out of the back(like you see on Dukes of Hazzard). I told him I was heading home to Sackville, NB and he said no problem because it just happens that I am picking up my wife in Charlottetown, PEI as she is going to vet school there.(so he said he cold drop me off in Aulac)
So as time went by, we began to chat and I became more comfortable with the guy even though he looked like a hillbilly from the southern states.(I remember him as clear as day=he had one of those ZZ top beards)
Anyway, he started talking about his travels around the world and it turns out the man had a PHD and was extremely bright. Who would have thunk?lol
He said that he used to hitch rides all over North America, especially in Ontario. I said that he must be crazy to hitch rides near Toronto, you could have been killed. He said have you ever heard of stompin' Tom...he used to hitch all over southern Ontario.
Then he said that it wasn't in Chicago or Toronto that he had problems. He said that his worst experience ever came in Fredericton when he was hitchiking just below the Aiken centre and before the old bridge crossing on the highway. He was there for 6 hours on a hot day...the longest he had ever waited for a ride! Ever! I guess they didn't like his look or something...he said it wasn't clean cut enough for them.
Also, to add insult to injury it started to get dark...and before he knew it a bunch of cars full of 20 somethings began to stalk him. The two cars shouted at him for 30 minutes straight and then they began to throw beer bottles at him. One clipped him in the head and cut him above the eye! They told him to go back to where you belong. Finally, a person saw this going on and picked him up out of sympathy...the man was from Shediac! He asked him if he was going to press charges or if he wanted to? The man said "no" just get me outta this hole.
As they crossed the bridge out of freddy, the farmer said you're a lifesaver and thanked him for the ride, as he had never seen anything like these racist from Fredericton before in his life. He said they were like a bunch of Arian thugs.
Here is the quote that I remember the most and have told many, he said "they are nothing but a bunch of Frednecks...plain and simple FREDNECKS!!!
And I'll never go back there, he said!! never!!
Post a Comment