The "Mafia"

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Funny, how he's not in a company (unmarked) truck, and the "sealer" is usually heavily diluted. Even after it's been in the media, people still fall for the scam.

The dilutant in the 'sealer' is usually used motor oil.

My one encounter with them was when they wandered onto the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Came up to me offering to re-do my shingles, my driveway, my shed, anything they could think of whenever I turned them down for the last thing they offered.

They just wouldn't take "I don't own the house, I just rent it and it is the job of the landlord to fix these 'problems', not mine." for an answer.

Miserable @#$%ers kept bugging me for days. I couldn't even go outside with a hummingbird feeder without these people offering to help for a price.

The only way I could get rid of them was to simply wait them out until they moved on. Took about two weeks. The sucky part was it was during my vacation and I was planning to do some woodworking projects (building a trebuchet) and I lost the week since if they saw tools in my hand they were on me like stink on poop.

M

[protege]

What's driveway sealer for, anyway? My (concrete) driveway works perfectly well as-poured, and Dad's 38-year-old asphalt is in better shape than the street.

It's used mainly on asphalt driveways to preserve the surface. Over time, things such as salt and petroleum products (oil, gasoline, etc.) cause the surface to break down. This is pretty common in Pennsylvania--take a look at most of our roads! Sealing the driveway helps preserve it. I'd rather spend a few dollars on sealer, rather than a few *thousand* dollars for a new driveway. Around here, asphalt driveways are cheap; poured concrete ones are expensive. However, if done correctly, (and taken care of by plugging cracks and sealing every so often) a poured concrete driveway will easily last 25-30 years. The only reason I know this...is watching my dad attempt to repair his asphalt driveway multiple times over the years. Eventually, it was in such bad shape the only answer was to replace it.

[The Gatekeeper]

We have Gypsy's in Canada too. I have not heard reports of the Irish Travellers. About a decade or so ago, many Gypsy families managed to immigrate here. The Canadian gov't put them all up in motels and hotels when they first landed. There was some ruckus about that, if I remember correctly. The "why do we have to pay for the new immigrants to stay in a hotel" crowd, vs. the politically correct "you can't call them Gypsy's" crowd.

At the time I was still working in retail, and ever so often the malls would send out a security bulletin cautioning stores to look out for Gypsy's because they were going from mall to mall, shoplifting.

These people were indeed Gypsy's as they had immigrated from Romania. I am not in the malls any more, so haven't heard much about them. But I'm sure that they move around quite a bit now. So even if you haven't heard of the Canada Girl, if you work in retail it's only a matter of time.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Used to be if one of these folks got admitted to a hospital, the ENTIRE CLAN (upwards of 30 people, all ages) camped in the hospital until they were released, visiting hours be damned. They'd steal everything that wasn't bolted down, leave huge messes of take-out fast food trash, smoke in the restrooms, and create nothing but havoc. Nowadays hospitals have tighter security but they still try it, don't succeed as often.

Random TV sightings: Recent episode of House (or maybe a rerun that I saw recently) where 16 year old Romany boy is brought in by his "outsider" girlfriend. When the parents show up they blame the girlfriend for him being sick and kick her out, then proceed to practically redecorate the room, and by the end of the episode pretty much the whole clan is hanging around.

Irish Travellers were the subject of an episode of Law & Order, Criminal Intent. Learned a bit about them of course, cuz if you watch the show, you know that Bobby knows everything about everything...

[po'drph]

I called the manager who called the cops. They came in and told the gypsies that if they didnt leave they were going to start running ID's for warrants, which completely cleared the room. The manager showed up and with the help of the cops, kicked out the one who paid for her room.

That's freakin hillarious! I wonder why they cleared out? "things that make you go hmmm"

[tollbaby]

Incidentally, Brad Pit played a "pikey"(term for gypsy) in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. You should watch it for a bit of light releif.

Actually, that was in Snatch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208092/, which I believe was the sequel... Brad Pitt isn't credited for the first one. (I thought they called them Pikers... ugh. Maybe I just need a hearing aid).

[tollbaby]

We have Gypsy's in Canada too. I have not heard reports of the Irish Travellers. About a decade or so ago, many Gypsy families managed to immigrate here. The Canadian gov't put them all up in motels and hotels when they first landed. There was some ruckus about that, if I remember correctly. The "why do we have to pay for the new immigrants to stay in a hotel" crowd, vs. the politically correct "you can't call them Gypsy's" crowd.

ok, but I live in Ottawa The gov't generally doesn't tend to invite the crowds of refugees/immigrants right to their door. Why the heck would the gov't put people who were IMMIGRATING up in hotels? Refugees, I can understand, but immigrants????

[AFpheonix]

I haven't heard of Travelers around here, too rainy I suppose. We do have gypsies, though. My mom and my sister, who both work (have worked) in hospitals, do have a lot of stories about having to hide everything that wasn't nailed down if they caught wind that a horde of them were coming in. Otherwise, they'd be cleaned out of supplies by them.

[Barefootgirl]

Pikey is a derogatory term for a gypsy or traveller, it also gets used as a synonym for chav.

my area is home to a lot of semi-retired traveller people, people who've bought land and built hard-standing on which to park their caravans. Becasue their families have not left the road, though, it means lots of them tend to congregate in this area, which does NOT go down well with our local farmers.

DH and I got quite friendly with one of these Traveller chaps a few years back, because I was looking for a horse to buy, and and this chap had horses he was looking to sell. I smiled when i read the post about the driveway cowboys, because we have LOADS of those in the area as well...except that they don't come to our house. Our traveller friend warned them to leave us alone. Once, this chap visited our house for some reason, probably to discuss the horse, and he'd noted that we had a loose tile on the roof. Two days later, an Irish chap in a van with a ladder on the roof turned up and announced he'd been sent to fix our tiles. By whom, we enquired? By our traveller friend. He went up the ladder, fixed the tile, accepted a cup of tea and refused any payment ! He then cleared off and we never saw him again!

[Ackee]

They call them both

Hey Tollbaby,
Thank you for the earlier correction, I have looked up the Pikey thing(this used to be a slightly derrogatory term, I wonder what happened)
They call them both in this movie.
Here is a very long list of quotes you may grow to love...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208092/quotes

[tollbaby]

oh I love the whole movie I especially loved Pitt's accent Apparently he was spot on, from what my british friends tell me Thanks for the quotes!

[Auto]

The only way I could get rid of them was to simply wait them out until they moved on. Took about two weeks.

I hear -- and some the posts upthread confirm it -- that they don't like cops. Telling them you might call the cops if they don't leave or that the cops told you to dial 911 the next time they came onto your property might be enough to make them leave.

that's what my grandmother always did. she never liked them because she thought they were casing her property before robbing it and she didn't hesitate to say what it took to scare them away. not that she would not have hesitated to call the police.

[Becks]

Didn't a recent episode of House have gypsies/Travellers/etc.?

[tollbaby]

Didn't a recent episode of House have gypsies/Travellers/etc.?

Yes, someone mentioned it up-thread a bit, I think.

[Getoutofmylobby]

The sucky part was it was during my vacation and I was planning to do some woodworking projects (building a trebuchet) and I lost the week since if they saw tools in my hand they were on me like stink on poop.

So Mongo, to you, building a siege engine is a "woodworking project?"

I'd help you build that trebuchet for free as long as we got to launch a car afterwards. And I ain't no pikey.