The po-po money game

You know one thing I hate? Telemarketing calls from the police benevolent fund. Or the sheriff's benevolent fund. Or whichever one happens to be calling. I think it's preying on people's fears that they think they need to keep in "good" with the police, and that if the police call them they'd better listen in case it's something important.

Now, I'm not against police benevolent funds at all. At all. In fact, I've been a grateful recipient of help from them when my mom was in hospital and after she died - they really helped us get back on our feet again, helped my dad change his shifts and figure out what to do with us, etc. I don't know the extent of their help to us, but it sure made a deep impression on my dad, and once we were doing OK again, he was a tireless supporter of theirs, and we did many many fundraising activities all through my teen years. But that's the thing: we were a police family. We helped our own. All the fundraising was done "in-house" as it were, like a union. Once we were OK, we pitched in to repay our debt and to help others. I don't agree with randomly calling members of the public to solicit cash.

So, I get this call this morning, and it's from the police benevolent fund. It's a guy with a VERY strong Indian accent. Which, seeing as I am from the UK which has a huge Indian population, I can understand perfectly well. But I totally got the feeling that he was trying to bamboozle me with the accent AND with the police thing into agreeing to something that I didn't mean to, and it just left me feeling slimed all over. It went something like this:

[Rrrrring]
Me: Hello?
Him: Hello, is this Mrs. Sarah xxxx? I am calling from the xxxx county police benevolent fund and...
Me: I'm not interested in giving any money right now but thanks for calling, buh-b...
Him: Mrs. Sarah, we're not asking for money right now, just a pledge of $15 if I can send you something.
Me: Look, if you want to send me something in the mail, I'll consider it, but I'm not interested in giving any money right now.
Him: Just a pledge of $15.
Me: No. I'm not interested in giving any money right now. Bye bye.
Him: Well, OK, I'll send you something in the mail and you'll consider a pledge? Just $15?
Me: Fine, if you want to send me something. I'll consider it.
Him: Great, so that's a pledge of $15. Someone will call back shortly to verify your address.
Me: I am NOT making a pledge. I'm not giving you anything now. Nobody needs to call me back, because I'm not pledging. You can send me some literature if you want but that's IT.
Him: But you'll consider a pledge of $15, yes?
Me: [Sighs] I'll think about it.
Him: OK, so I'll have someone call to verify your pledge of $15.
Me: NO. THERE IS NO PLEDGE. I AM NOT GIVING YOU ANY MONEY. EVER. GOOD-BYE.
[Click]

Asshat.