Hello I made the journey to Boston to file my combined wage claim. I just wanted to pass along my experience and a warning. Watch out for the beggars and pickpockets. I was approached many times by very friendly people that struck up a conversation and every time ended up asking me for money. What really opened my eyes was when I was standing outside the south station bus terminal. It was about 8:00 am and an old man approached me while I was having a smoke, he had a suitcase with a greyhound tag on it. I didn’t think much of it and figured he was just traveling, he was preaching to me about smoking, another person showed up and asked to bum a smoke and said he had been waiting for a bus overnight, I gave him one and didn’t think much of it as he sat down. Another man walked up and struck up a conversation about him being from Houston since I had my Houston Astros shirt on, and said he was from Houston as well and became overly friendly repeatedly shaking my hand and pulling me close to pat me on the back. He said since I was from Texas I should have a big Texan belt buckle and wanted to see it, I told him I didn’t but he still wanted to see since my shirt wasn’t tucked in, I didn’t do it, anyway after a few pats to many on my backpack I noticed the old man was sitting there playing with the greyhound tag and ignoring the situation. The friendly man then asked if I was a cop and I said no, then he asked for some money so he could get a forty, I told him I didn’t have any cash and quickly walked inside the terminal while he was telling me not to leave come back and talk. When I got back inside I turned around and they were all gone, I looked at my back pack and many of the zippers had been unzipped. Luckily nothing was missing. I then realized what almost happened, the man that bummed a smoke from me was the pickpocket, the overly friendly man was prepping me to be mugged and locate my valuables, wallet, phone etc.. and unzip my backpack and distract me, it also gave the appearance to passers by that I knew him with all the hand shaking, the old man was there to hide anything inside the suitcase. I told the security guard what almost happened and he said it happens all the time there, he called it in and some officers quickly showed up, but since nothing happened there was nothing to be done. I know this can happen anywhere but felt I should pass along for those making the journey to 210 South Street.
Other then that, the journey was easy, arrived at Boston Logan airport, waited outside airport arrivals bus stop and took Silverline bus to the south station, cost was 2 dollars, waited in South station train terminal until I was begged to death and moved to the bus terminal, security seemed tighter in the bus terminal, waited until about 8:25am then walked to 210 Southstreet, quickest way from the bus terminal is to walk down to Kneeland Street and take a right, then another right on South street, its right there. They took my info and setup my pin. They were very nice and even walked with me to the bus terminal to show me how to get back to the airport, you will need to go to one of the machines and buy a prepaid card, when your buying the pass choose other amount and enter 2 dollars on the touchpad and pay, follow the signs to silverline down the stairs, there is more then one silverline, there is a sign further down to the left and says SL1 to Logans airport, take that one.
I had a Texas claim that ran out of funds but hadn’t reached the one year anniversary yet, I qualified for the max of $575 plus $25 a week for my dependent. Hope this helps and don’t talk to strangers.