Community Post

Patrick Lewis … Charming Central District Panhandler – Actually knocks on your door!

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Patrick Lewis, Central District Door-Knocking Panhandler, getting away.

I had a man knock on my door last night; I’m a new arrival around 19th Avenue and Marion. My boyfriend answered the door, and “Patrick” introduced himself (he was straddling his bike), and said that he lives a few doors down.  He said he was locked outside of his house, and needed $4 more to pay off the locksmith.  My boyfriend gave him a $5 bill and we both walked outside to see Patrick “off to his house.”

He rode off, then came back (as he realized that we were watching him) and told me that he “feels me” and how much he appreciates our generosity and the kindness of us. And just as I’m about to feel like the dumbest f*cking new Midwesterner-Now-In-Seattle, he said, “The locksmith had to run an errand, so I have to meet him back here in a few minutes.”  I’m thinking to myself, “You got T-A-K-E-N!”

He also mentioned that he is a hard working black, gay man, and that he appreciated my neighborly kindness. I said, “Well, I don’t care about the black, or they gay, but sometimes,  ya just need a hand.”  He smiled REAL BIG like.

Patrick is about 5 foot 9 inches, light brown skin, gray hair, about 60 years old. Missing a few teeth. Good manners. A little run down.

Either way, he was harmless, it only cost $5, he didn’t seem to be “casing the joint,” or anything, but panhandling by knocking on people’s doors after 8 pm … really, Patrick???

I would officially like to start the Panhandlin’ Patrick Parade. To be held never.

No, but seriously, if you see Patrick out, get his photo, and post here. Let’s see how many we can get!!!   We’ll have a review and contest winner in July.

18 thoughts on “Patrick Lewis … Charming Central District Panhandler – Actually knocks on your door!

  1. Funny he didn’t tell you that he meant $14, not $4 when you gave him the $5? He does this all over the CD, & his story varies only slightly. He tends to watch people move in & is the neighborhood welcoming party. His teeth are bad because of the meth, which is uber-cheap, which is why he didn’t need but a few $.

    I have my own Patrick story, & it’s not too different from yours…

  2. Ha! Welcome to the neighborhood. I’ve been here 15 years and ran into him several times (he only got money the first time). The last time he hit me up, I beat him to the punch and said, “Hey, you’re Patrick, right?” He scuttled off pretty quick.

    If you want a chuckle, google: patrick scammer “I’m gay” seattle

    You’ll see his name pop up on blogs all over the city. The guy gets around. Wonder what his annual salary is?

  3. He has been doing this for years. Sometimes he’s a neighbor locked out, sometimes he’s the janitor of a nearby business locked out, sometimes he’s the parent of a made up student at GHS and he’s out of gas just as school is letting out. Sometimes he knocks at 11pm at night and then wanders off in to the dark of my back yard, at which point I set off the house alarm and he runs away.

  4. The same thing happened to me tonight. Patrick came to my door at midnight with the same “locked out of my house story.” He asked for $3. I told him no & he walked off in a huff. I’ve encountered him a couple times before too around 16th & Fir Street. Thanks all for posting, it verified what I thought about him.

  5. He may be the most well known man in the hood – if you qualify that as requiring at least one person to person meeting. I would be interested if anybody has not met him. Any recluses out there?

    And strangly, the first time, I did give thim the 3 bucks. Not because of his story but he seemed like a nice guy. The next few times I said know and he seemed very agitated. Almost dangerously so.

  6. Well this beats my first door knocking panhandler when I was new to seattle and living on 16th right by what was then Providence Hospital (now swedish). I gave a guy $10 to take a taxi to the hospital – only realizing days later the hospital emergency room was 1.5 blocks away!

  7. Pingback: Hood Watch: Industrious Panhandlers, Raccoon Squatters, and Beer | canacast.networks.beta

  8. A guy come to our house with the same story, not too long after we moved into our new place in the CD. We doubted his sincerity and kindly sent him away.

  9. Sounds a lot like the guy with the gas can I’ve seen at the arboretum on-ramp a few times.

  10. He’s tried our place twice despite never getting anything out of us. I guess his memory is not so good.

  11. Years ago, I got a story about his car was broken down in Ballard where he worked, so I gave him a ride there (along with some money that he insisted he would pay back). I didn’t hear back from him of course, and the omapny he mentioned did not know him.
    There is also a woman who used to always walk up to me an tell me her car was broken down, until I told her that I recognized her and she stoped approaching we. I still see her around, always looking for someone she can approach. With these folks, it seems like a good tactic to simply say, “I’ve heard about you”.

  12. Does Patrick have an accent? I’m not sure if it’s the same guy, as we’re in the north end, but our gentleman knocker sounds like he’s from the deep south.

  13. This guy hit us up a few days after we moved in about 4 years ago. Same MO, same description, same story. I almost bought it for a minute but then thought better and I told him I couldn’t help. The minute he saw he wasn’t going to get any money he stopped maintaining character and left. I did think at the time that anyone could have seen us moving in, and posing as a neighbor I wouldn’t know was a fishy coincidence.

    A couple years later we had a friend move in with us, and she encountered him soon after. It seems like he does watch for some tip off like moving vans or vacant houses that get filled.

  14. Quite a few years ago, I had a woman knock on my side door and give me a sob story about how she need to get herself and her kids to a women’s shelter on Bainbridge, and she needed money to take the ferry. Like an idiot, I gave her $20 because I actually believed her. And it didn’t even occur to me how unlikely it was there would be a women’s shelter on Bainbridge that she could go to, but not one in Seattle. Talk about “duh”. It was barely one minute after she left that I realized “you dumbass, you just got taken”.

  15. He stopped by my place on 29th back in December. I gave him $14 in loose nickles and pennies. I’ll never forget seeing him carefully walk down the driveway with all that change. He didn’t drop a cent as he gingerly walked away but took the time to stop, turn around, smile and say “you won’t regret this.” Looking back it was pretty funny and I learned my lesson. He should have just said “welcome to Seattle, moron.”

  16. Ha! this post is great. Our neighbors sent us this link…after we experienced the same exact event….
    Patrick knocked on our door on March 4, midnight. We had just moved in less than a week ago…on 22nd between Fir and Spruce.

    He was smelling of alcohol; created this sob story of how he had locked himself out, lives round the corner, behind the daycare and had to give $4 to a locksmith. He introduced himself as the brother of the woman who runs the day care, in front of us. Ofcourse, i wouldn’t know that cause we barely knew our neighbors. He said he worked as a janitor at SPU. After questioning him about this stubborn locksmith (who wanted his $4 in the middle of the night) and confronting him with the fact that he was drunk–he told me about how he felt me and how people perceived another african american dude, asking for money. i decided to hand him $5 bucks and not continue this conversation any further. It was getting late. He thanked me saying i was ever so helpful and that he really appreciated it..

    Seeing me this skeptical, before leaving, he asked if i was going to be awake for a while as he would like to return the money. I laughed and said I’m going no where.

    i’ve seen him on his bike early mornings between 8-9am in front of our street..he won’t look here and there…will bike slowly and be super low key (if hes already visited the house).

    I watch him every now and then smiling to myself, thinking who will Patrick visit next?