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Comment by megous | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't hold any flowers or anything really for any stranger in public. I've been to touristy places before and learned this lesson just by observation. High likelyhood some pressure style selling tactics would follow.

Really, putting things on the groud or some other higher surface to free your hands should be a basic human skill by now.

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Very common in NYC. Someone on the street will ask you to "have something" or "check out something I'm giving away for free", acting as if it is a gift.

As you walk away with said thing, that person will accuse you of stealing and use it as means for a physical altercation.

I'm not sure why someone would do this just to start a physical altercation which seems more likely to get someone in trouble for seemingly no reason. What I've actually seen in NYC is people offering something like a "mix CD" and then ask you for money once you take it.

I see this often in Seattle, especially near the tourist attracting areas. I had a friend get sniped by it and they ended up arguing with the scammer for 20 minutes. Absolute waste of everybody’s energy, I’m surprised it’s not treated as a form of harassment by the authorities.

"Don't accept roses from strangers in Italy" was travel wisdom at least back as far as the mid-Oughts - the gambit there was a seeming well-wisher (often a child) handing a woman a rose, and then an accomplice badgering her male companion to pay for it and then resentfully yanking it back when he refused.

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