Costco Panhandler Joseph Hunt Aims to ‘Travel Around the World,’ Aid People

Smoking a cigarette and holding a sign that said, “Dirty. Broke. And Ugly!” Joseph Hunt stood in the drizzle at Costco early Monday afternoon with his 2-year-old German Shepherd mix Sasha—hoping for handouts.

The slogan wasn’t original, he said.

People who fly the sign (as panhandling is known) also use: “Why lie? I need a beer,” he said.

Hunt, 29, said he is homeless, based in the College Area, and takes a bus to get to his Fletcher Parkway stations. The nearby McDonald’s is a usual spot, he said, but it was taken Monday.

Home-schooled by a single mother (now deceased), he didn’t know his father, he said. He entered Southwestern College at the age of 16 and and took theater and computer classes but fell into a meth habit, he said.

“Stupid teenager,” Hunt said of himself. He ran away from home.

He said he kicked his drug habit after a frightening experience.

“The last time I did it, I did so much that I got stuck in this really retarded headspace for like a week,” he said. “And it scared the living s—t out of me, and I didn’t want to go there anymore.”

He’s been flying the sign (for signboard) about eight months, he said. He wears headphones to pass the time.

“It really varies,” he said of his take. “Some days you make $20, some days you make $100. Holidays are usually very good.”

His goal—after getting dentures—is to take camping classes and travel with his friend Matt of Ramona, “and learn how to forage and survive in the wilderness. Then we’re going to travel around the world and help people.”

He said he would stay in the Costco parking lot Monday until he had enough money for food.