One district I worked in had a resident that wasn’t dealing with a full deck. One day she put all her home furnishings out to the curb and of course people started to help themselves. Then she called the police to report they were stealing from her. I know she really just wanted to be left alone and when AIDS came on the scene she started to tell people she had it. There was so much fear of it at the time that it was an effective tactic.

Another instance I was working retail and we had a lady in the bathroom stall singing away and slapping her bare feet on the ground. She wasn’t too interested in our request to leave. So we called the police, who were well aware of her. When the officer arrived she recognized him and asked if he could take her home, which he did.