GRAND CHUTE, WISCONSIN — A man in Grand Chute, Wisconsin is standing in the median alongside panhandlers with a sign that reads: "some panhandlers are fraudulent."
Dave Schowalter is the town's chairman and says "I just had to figure out a way that I could tell the public how bad it is."
Grand Chute Police say panhandling has gotten worse at the Fox River Mall over the past year. Schowalter says his sign is changing things, "they have a right to stand on the median, unfortunately so do I."
Police Chief Greg Peterson agrees, saying "not every panhandler is trying to deceive people, there are people out there who I think have a real need, but unfortunately we've seen far too many instances of this type of deception... This is a community rich with services for people who are in need, and so what we've tried to do is connect those people to those community services."
But some panhandlers don't want help. "They don't want anything to do except get free money from people that feel sorry for them and that is to me fraudulent and it's totally wrong," says Schowalter. He goes on to say that from what he's seen, people approve of his way to take action.
Police say because it's not illegal, there's not much they can do unless a panhandler becomes aggressive.
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