Shannon Mullen

Asbury (N.J.) Park Press

LAKEWOOD, N.J. - A New Jersey homeless man, who accepted $5 for allowing a stranger to videotape him pouring a cup of coffee over his head, says he’s embarrassed by what happened.

Ronald Leggatt, 65, said he agreed to the unidentified man’s request - twice - because he needed the money, even though he sensed he was being made fun of.

“Oh, my goodness. Isn’t it terrible? I mean, oh my,” Leggatt said on Wednesday night after a reporter found him sleeping in a cinderblock dugout at a local ball field.

The incident occurred Monday afternoon at Singin Oil, a gas station and convenience store in downtown Asbury Park.

Leggatt said it’s his practice to scrounge for discarded lottery tickets in the business’ parking lot, searching for winners that haven’t been properly scratched off. If he’s lucky, he’ll pocket enough cash to buy himself lunch and a hot cup of coffee.

“Never thought I’d be in this position at 65,” he said.

A former resident of Lakewood’s “Tent City,” a homeless encampment in the woods that was shut down in 2014, Leggatt had lived a largely anonymous life on the streets for years. That changed when a witness posted an account of the coffee pouring incident on Facebook earlier this week.

The post by Carlos Mejia, 22, who captured the exchange between Luggatt and another man, sparked outrage and bitter exchanges on social media that cast a harsh light on the raw racial and ethnic tensions roiling this community.

Bombarded with complaints, the township police department investigated the incident, but after speaking to all parties involved, it announced on its Facebook page on Wednesday that no charges would be filed, citing Leggatt's acceptance to participate.

The Rev. Steve Brigham, a homeless advocate who knows Leggatt from the years they lived together in Tent City, called the incident a “hideous” example of exploitation.

“It’s just something that you don’t do to other human beings,” he said.

Much of the social media commentary centered on the fact that the man who made the proposal has been identified as a member of the Orthodox Jewish community. Mejia, of Jackson, N.J., says that after he confronted the man, he boasted that the police wouldn’t do anything because “we run the town.”

Members of the Orthodox community however, were quick to condemn the man’s actions, and several people have sought out Leggatt to express their disgust and try to help him.

One man even paid to get him a haircut and shave. On Thursday, the Lakewood Scoop, a local news website, reported that the man involved in the coffee incident apologized to Leggatt, who is being given room in a motel ahead of the approaching snowstorm.

Mejia said he stops at Singin Oil regularly and often sees Leggatt there looking for lottery tickets.

He spotted him there again behind the store Monday afternoon, outside talking to a young man in a black Honda Accord. Mejia said the man appeared to be in his 20s.

“He said, ‘Would you like to make $5?’ I said, ‘I'd love to make $5. It's lunchtime.’ He said, ‘Would you pour this coffee on your head. I'll give you $5,’” Leggatt said.

Leggatt said he pocketed the money and poured the coffee in such a way that the wind would blow it away from his head, so he wouldn’t be burned, as the man filmed him. Afterward, the man offered him a handful of loose change if he would do it again, Leggatt said. Again, he agreed.

Mejia said he heard what the man was asking Leggatt to do, and got out of his car to confront him.

“What are you doing? Do you think it’s funny to do this to this guy?” Mejia demanded.

“The guy got nervous and scared. he said, ‘What’s the problem? There’s many others who are doing this. There’s this website and videos on YouTube of other people paying the homeless to do things like that,’’’ Mejia recounted.

Mejia said he made the man shake hands and embrace Leggatt and apologize for what he’d done. He managed to snap two photos of the exchange before his cell phone battery ran out.

Mejia said he also tried to set up a meeting at the station the next day so the man could pay Leggatt $20 to make amends, but when the appointed time came, neither man showed.

After the encounter, Mejia took Leggatt inside the store and bought him lunch and coffee.

“Honestly I don't know his name, but he's there every day. And I always say hi to him,” Leggatt said about Mejia. “He seems to be a very nice gentleman.”

Leggatt said he didn’t give the incident any further thought until the following day, when a friend told him he’d read about what happened on Facebook.

“I didn't know it was going on Facebook at all,” Leggatt said. “I don’t even know what Facebook is, to be honest with you.”

Leggatt accompanied a reporter to Singin Oil Wednesday night.

“This is my little stomping grounds. Isn't that terrible?” he said sheepishly.

“Everything happened right by that big tank over there.”

Inside the store, a customer recognized Leggatt from the Facebook post, and handed him a $1 bill.

“I saw it online. I mean, you can’t blame the whole community, the Hasidic community. It’s a tragedy,” said township resident David Boswell. “As a community, you stick together as a family and work it out. It was a young kid. You know how the youth are. They’re reckless and rambunctious. Nobody took into consideration the greater picture.”

Leggatt was touched by the man’s gesture.

“Thank you,” he said, before returning to his dugout to hunker down for the night.