Living: A Connoisseur of the Con

Bopping down Wilshire Boulevard in his Reebok tennis shoes, black Lycra biking shorts, a clean T shirt, red wristbands, sunglasses and a Panama hat, big Tim Brown doesn't look like a typical Santa Monica, Calif., beggar. And he's not: at 6 ft. 3 in., the former Golden Gloves boxer and current alcoholic is an intimidating presence as he accosts pedestrians and dashes into traffic to knock on car windows. "You have to make them scared enough so they'll give you what they have in their pockets," says Brown, explaining the activist panhandling philosophy that he says can bring him $20 to...

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