Kentucky Man Who Earns $100,000 A Year Pretending To Be Retarded Begging For Money Gets Busted

Daily Mail- A man who pretends to be mentally and physically handicapped while he goes around the streets begging claims he makes up to $100,000 a year from his panhandling. Gary Thompson, from Texas, gets around Lexington, Kentucky, in a wheelchair which he says he needs because he has difficulty walking.  He also maneuvers his hands in a way that would lead the untrained eye to believe he had difficulty using them. Added to the fact Thompson seems to have difficulty speaking and fully understanding, he manages to illicit a lot of sympathy from others – sympathy and money. Thompson was awarded $2.4 million in a lawsuit tied to a motorcycle accident from 1993, money he said he and his family spent. ‘I appreciate you guys busting me,’ Thompson told a reporter. ‘Yeah, I’m really good at it, really good. I clear about 100,000 dollars a year doing this. ‘Anything from 60,0000 to 100,00 dollars. I am normal, it just helps to be mentally handicapped.’ Not only can Thompson speak and use his arms properly, but he has a degree in speech pathology that allowed him to mimic a mentally disabled person. Judy McKinney told Lex 18: ‘He got me! I don’t make that much money, but I reached into my pocket, and gave him everything I had. Six dollars at the time.’

Snake it till you make it! I don’t have any problem with Gary Thompson and his fake-retarded racket. He’s out there hustlin and if there are suckers out there willing to give him money for it, so be it. Its a free market. Really when you think about it, he’s no different than the vast majority of people in the workforce. Take me for example – I pretended to be an accountant for 4 years out of college. I was acting and pretending just as much as Gary Thompson. I wasn’t wheeling around in a chair pretending to be a tard, but I was acting nonetheless. Had absolutely no idea what I was doing but I convinced people that I was fit to audit collateralized debt obligations. Tricked someone into paying me money for something I didn’t deserve at all.

So you tell me – whats the difference? Is it because I was pretending to not be retarded while Gary is pretending he is retarded? Is that why he gets a bad rap? Because as far as I’m concerned, we’re all just snakes trying to trick people into giving us money. Whether you’re at a desk or rolling around the streets of Kentucky in a wheelchair – you’re pretending to be something you’re not in order to get paid.