Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith has garnered a lot of comments on his Facebook page regarding his statement about panhandlers in the area.

Where do you most often see panhandling taking place? I live in Loveland, and I very often see it taking place at Eisenhower Boulevard and Highway 287, both on the northbound side of 287 (Lincoln) and the southbound side (Cleveland).  The sheriff has had enough of them, wherever you may see them.

The sheriff compared giving a panhandler some of your money to how the government has been giving out extra money to the unemployed during the pandemic, giving them an incentive to not work.

He's frustrated that he sees people panhandling in front of businesses that may have a 'Help Wanted' sign in the window.

He'd rather that you go into a place where people ARE working (for little money), and give THEM some extra money to help them get by; like a reward for getting out there and working as opposed to taking money from the public or the government.

I've talked to friends about panhandlers, and I think most of us feel that there are too many people on the corners 'conning' us; taking our money, not to 'get by' but to supplement their current income. You've seen the stories where a panhandler gets done for the day, then drives home in their Lexus.

I heard about an idea where you could give a panhandler a pair of socks: do this by putting a Gatorade into one of the socks along with a banana. This way they would have fresh socks and a snack.

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