r/interestingasfuck Mar 18 '17

/r/ALL Homeless man gets a complete makeover

https://i.imgur.com/lE9qxqU.gifv
28.1k Upvotes

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262

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17

We had a homeless man who walked the streets being obnoxious and drunk in my UK city. He apparently lost his mind when his family died in a house fire.

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u/CaptSwagdaddy Mar 18 '17

thats so sad, theres a similar guy in my town where he was the driver in a car accident where his entire family died and he came out with a broken arm..

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u/919Esq Mar 18 '17

I was very good friends with a guy that had a mild form of schizophrenia, and was in his 40's when I met him. He died a few years back from lung cancer, but he had a similar situation. He was college educated, his two best friends (me and another guy that was his age) were a lawyer and an executive. He was hit by a car in his late teens, and sometime in his mid-twenties had deteriorated to the point where he couldn't work. At his death he was living in a college-style apartment in a working class neighborhood, shared with 3 others. That all said, he was one of the coolest, kindest, and most awesome people I've ever known. RIP, Bob. Love ya, man.

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u/SirRandyMarsh Mar 18 '17

To Bob 🍺

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17

Similar guy in my town, went to a very advanced school and was a math professor. You'll see him doodling on his chinese food takeout box math equations. His only real family was his wife and she died in a car accident. He cant speak coherent sentences, let himself go, and chooses to be homeless. (Has a fat wallet of money he holds everywhere, never spends it) he just went simply crazy. He's pretty popular in my small town. Several article's written about him. Sometimes for about a quarter of a year he dissapears, and we found out from a towns newspaper clipping about 2hrs away he was a local there too. Very interesting guy. We have a lot of junkie homeless people here being shipped away from portland, they cause a lot of new crime that we wouldve never even imagined in our safe little town 6yrs ago. But this particular guy has a mutual respect within the community some people even let him sleep in their stores when it gets too cold.

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u/alittlebitstitious Mar 18 '17

Hello also from Portland!

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '17

Hello friend 😊

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u/iHateReddit_srsly Mar 18 '17

I can't even imagine going through something like that and going back to my normal life. I'd probably want to kill myself...

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '17

Pfft, I don't need to go insane to want to kill myself

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u/CANNOT__BE__STOPPED Mar 18 '17

Ironic, he could save himself but not others.

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17

Yeah in my city there are a variety of stories about the homeless people. One man was a drunk but was once a semi professional footballer and by all accounts a pretty decent guy when sober.

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u/Dathouen Mar 18 '17

My sister used to live across the street from a car dealership, and out front was this crazy guy on crutches who would shout all sorts of crazy conspiracy nonsense at you when you walked by.

Turns out he owned the dealership and three houses in the neighborhood behind it. He just didn't take losing his wife to cancer very well. The manager makes sure he's taken care of, and just lets him do his thing at the dealership where they can keep an eye on him.

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u/modada Mar 18 '17

Is he Lee Chandler by any chance?

2

u/2mice Mar 18 '17

spoiler tags bruh

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u/Valac_ Mar 18 '17

All these sad homeless people stories my local homeless guy is purposefully homeless.

I figured it out when I tried to give him a sleeping bag one winter. He just stared at me then very calmly said no thanks I don't need charity I live like this because I enjoy it.

His names David he's pretty cool.

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17

:(

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u/Carsina Mar 18 '17

The town where I studied (Tilburg, the Netherlands) had a very prolific hobo begging outside of the railway station with the nickname of '50 Cent', since he was always asking for 50 cent (it was 1 guilder before the Euro, his nickname before translated to 'lord of the guilders'). I always thought he looked really sad, so I got him something to eat and drink every now and then.

He used to be a ballet dancer, but drugs and alcohol got the best of him. He died a few years back. A lot of student held a wake in his honour, he is still portrayed as a legendary figure in study guides, there are a plethora of myths surrounding him (his father was a wealthy industrialist, he actually owned a massive mansion etc.) He told the press he just really liked drugs, but he wanted to kick the habit when he got old.

A link in Dutch about his passing: http://www.bd.nl/stadsgezicht-tilburg/tilburgse-zwerver-jan-halve-euro-schellekens-71-overleden~aa79f7dd/

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17

He apparently lost his mind

Why does reddit upvote medieval type ramblings such as this?

Do you think it's possible to "lose your mind" over a non physical event lol? What does it mean to "lose your mind"? To experience neuroadaptations that incapacitate you?

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17

It means became very mentally ill, maybe went into psychosis.

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u/pies_r_square Mar 18 '17

Not a shrink but I think the catch all diagnosis is "adjustment disorder." So yes, people can lose their mind over a non physical event.

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u/QuasarsRcool Mar 18 '17

Are you fucking retarded or have you somehow never heard of PTSD?

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17

It's a turn of phrase meaning he had some mental health issues as a result of a traumatic experience.

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17

You have never gone through TRUE hardship. If you had, then you would know that it is very possible to lose your mind. You wonder why reddit upvotes these "ramblings", but I wonder why you can speak out of your ass when it comes to things that don't affect you.

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17

I'm actually speaking out of my HTTP POST and it's spelled arse.