Being a redditor isn't exactly an exclusive club, and it wouldn't be too hard to profile a reddit user based on appearance and geographical location. Google's DoubleClick says 72% of the userbase is male 25-24 years old, some college education, low income bracket (unemployed/students), and technology oriented (Alexa adds that they're mostly Caucasian as well). Reddit has millions of users. Going with that information, finding a redditor in NYC or San Fransisco wouldn't exactly be an impossibly small chance.
Being a redditor isn't exactly an exclusive club, and it wouldn't be too hard to profile a reddit user based on appearance and geographical location.
True, totally true. And if you went out trying to solicit a Reddit user from a crowd, talking to multiple people along the way, then yeah, I'd say you could find a Redditor almost anywhere.
But the chances of picking somebody out of a crowd, based on what, just skin color and maybe attire, and just happening on a Redditor? And one who would immediately run to Reddit and post this (to multiple reddits as well, apparently)? That doesn't strike me as likely, which is why I am now tending to agree with the idea that the "homeless guy" and the $50 never existed and that none of that stuff ever happened at all. The Reddit OP is probably the person behind (or an employee of the agency behind) the whole thing, IMO.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit#Demographics