Do you ever pull over and help strangers?

I'm not cafeful about helping:

There have been times when I just could not stop from helping a person who needed it.

Case in point;
Was traveling down a city street when by a tavern. I was slowing down for a turn when this "Lady" came tumbling out of the tavern with a guy behind her. She went down and the guy proceeded to kick her down some concrete steps toward the street. I stopped open the door and yelled at the guy, to stop. They were both drunker than two sailors, on liberty. He told me to mind my own business and she just sat there wobbling sideways. It was pathetic and really got me "pi**ed. I walked around my car and he went back into the tavern. Called the cops and stayed there till they came. Told them what happened and left. ...... :mad:

If and when I see something like this or worse, I get so ticked off, I don't remember all of what I said or did. ...... :confused:

If I had been outside of Parkland school, I would have gone in, regardless. I really think I could have pulled it off. ..... ;)

Think and;
Be Safe !!!
 
Tony, that's encouraging to read! Good job. Lay yourself up treasures in heaven....

There have been two people I didn't pick up, both young people, both with luggage, one was a young woman. I came back by there an hour later and she was gone but there was a heavy rain on. The other was a young man at the interstate "on" ramp, when I drove past he hung his head in sorrow. Those have been some 20 years ago. I was younger then and unarmed. I hope they are OK.

Pahoo, I did something similar, although it was probably a drug deal gone bad or hooker that ripped off a john. Rest stop, 2 AM. Man chasing woman out of the building and down the steps. I jumped into that. Man, that could have gotten ugly! Once I realized what I had stopped, I got on out of there but I'd do it again, only now we have better flashlights and I don't need both hands to draw. In other words, Mr. Chasey-Chasey might get a laser dot on his chest while police are called.....it just depends on how it works out. There are too many variables to predict exactly what we'll do.

Your story is similar to one I was told by this guy I know...only the offender you ran into left with his body intact.
 
T. O'Heir said:
Absolutely. Been helped by complete strangers myself. Guy stopped when I was starting a 7 + kilometer hike when I ran out of gas one night out in the boonies. The guy drove me to a gas station and back to my truck. It's a 'What goes around, comes around.' thing. Karma, if you will.
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Same thing here. Call me Satan, but when I ran out of gas I was saved a long walk by a kind stranger. I paid it forward by helping somebody with a flat the next day.

A few times in the past I've been bailed out of car trouble by complete strangers.
Are we to allow our fears to justify denying others the milk of human kindness?
 
Yes, I do. At least a few times a year. stopped to help a woman just a few weeks ago, she approached me at a gas store and asked me to take her to the hospital. Okay, she didn't look too good. She looked straight, though, I felt safe about it. I had her get in the car. she started talking and decided that she wanted to go to church before the hospital.

The holy cathedral of lazarus?

I suggested that I didn't have time to drive her to mass and then take her out of town. She started telling me her current events, questioned me a lot of times about what and who I was and if I wanted to hurt her. Then she started mumbling to her self "stop it! leave me alone!"

At this point I was beginning to wonder, the hair was standing up on my neck. I was spooked. At some point, I gave the wrong answer, and she asked me to stop for a minute. She took off running.

She was having a psychotic episode, that's why she was wanting to go to the hospital, or church, she needed help, but I scared her.

I risked my life, literally. I was driving. she could have killed me or even just jammed a dirty needle into my throat. I called the police and asked them to search for her and get her off of the public.

I took her in knowing quite well that she may have been dangerous. It's what I do. I help. I will go past other people. I'm no fool, all that I can do is hope that I never have trouble, and hope that god is truly looking out for me. I know that god doesn't care that much, so I keep a weapon handy when I do.

Maybe it's just payback for the few times that people have reached out to me in my hardest times.

I found out later that my daughter had taken out her pepper spray and had it pointed at her.

"HOLY HELLBALLS, CHILD, ARE YOU REALLY CRAZY ENOUGH TO SHOOT PEPPER SPRAY INTO THE FRONT OF A MOVING CAR!?"

I'm not entirely stupid. I've done some practice with weak side gun handling in the car.
 
five or six years ago, I was at a store on the day before thanksgiving. The woman at the cash register was an idiot and she took forever to get the old man in front of me taken care of. He remarked that he hoped he didn't miss his bus, and surely, when I got out, he had missed his bus by a minute. It was just pulling away on the street.

It was six miles away, but I took him home, he managed to have a conversation, and talked about what the holidays were like when his wife could still get around.

So I got home a little late, the apple pie was a little late, and we stayed up about a half hour longer. Big deal. the man needed what I could give him. So I gave it to him.
 
I have, and I may again, depending on the circumstances. I admit that I became a lot more careful once my situation changed such that my not making it home would have a significant negative impact on my family's future. At one time it was only my safety at stake, now I have to consider the impact on others as well.

The unfortunate thing is that it's very difficult to assess someone on the side of the road to determine if helping them will be safe. And as much as we might like to think that the danger of helping such people is a relatively new issue, it is not.

My late grandfather, many, many years ago, worked for the highway department and did a lot of driving in his job. He would occasionally pick people up and give them rides. That stopped the day that one man told him, as he was exiting the car, that he had gotten in the car with the intent of killing my grandfather and taking the vehicle but had changed his mind after getting to know him. Then he showed him the large screwdriver that was the intended murder weapon. It was something of an eye-opener for him.
 
Sounds like your grandfather's kindness made an impact on exactly the kind of person that needed it the most. If your grandfather was a Christian, that sounded like the time for him to ask the man to give his life to Christ.

However, it seems like it turned your grandfather to fear instead of towards keeping up the good work.

Story sounds a lot like this one I found online just a few hours ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LetsNotMeet/comments/3ve1pi/never_ever_pick_up_a_hitchhiker/

Are these sympathetic serial killers fairly common or is this sort of an urban myth?

***

It's impossible to completely assess someone on the side of the road. My guy last night, he did have a blow out. He was pulled over at the only space there was. He did have coal miner gear and anyone growing up where I did knows what that gear looks like. Was I a little hesitant? Yes, but I decided to risk it. While he was getting his gear I moved my .38 from right pants pocket to left coat pocket. ;)

briandg's story of picking up the crazy lady sounds like something that would happen to me! In fact, she sounds a lot like a girl I took to church once. No joke, she went nuts in church, started screaming "NOBODY NEEDS A FATHER!" and it went downhill from there. I just wish I had it on video because it'd have to be worth a few million views at least.
 
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However, it seems like it turned your grandfather to fear instead of towards keeping up the good work.

Story sounds a lot like this one I found online just a few hours ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LetsNotMeet..._a_hitchhiker/

Are these sympathetic serial killers fairly common or is this sort of an urban myth?
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I certainly can't speak to the authenticity of the story in the link you provided.

As far as the story I told, my grandfather is long dead so I can't ask him for more details or try to interrogate him to verify he was telling the truth. If you want to believe he was lying about the incident, or that he was a coward for changing his behavior, I guess that's up to you.
 
And you really can't speak to the authenticity of the story your grandfather told you, but he's your family, and we tend to believe what family tells us and we can take it personally when a stranger questions what we were told.

I have no idea if either story is true but it's interesting the story exists, almost to the letter, elsewhere. Maybe it happened. Maybe your grandfather was trying to make you think before you picked up the wrong guy. That's not a bad thing.

Either way, it's a harmless enough story. Personal kindness overcomes the desire to kill. Bad guy, so moved by kindness, gives helpful advice.

Either way, you do think about it, and you wanted us to think about it also.
 
And you really can't speak to the authenticity of the story your grandfather told you...
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Right, that's pretty much what I said. The incident happened before I was born so there's obviously no way I could have witnessed it. I choose to believe him, but if you choose to believe he was lying because the incident doesn't fit your narrative then that's up to you.
 
When I was young and had just gotten my car, I gave a woman a ride.

She was rude and ungrateful, demanded we stop for a pack of smokes (and to smoke in my car or wait for her to finish a smoke break) and she had only needed to go about 2-3 miles anyways. She could have passed for homeless or an addict, and I can't believe I helped her. I should have kept driving, and I'm very lucky things turned out ok.

Helped another guy with a jump start once. Decent neighborhood, decent truck, guy seemed ok. Nothing seemed suspect, and it turned out ok.

Working retail for a few years has hardened my heart, though. I'm not feeling terribly charitable at all these days.

Are these sympathetic serial killers fairly common or is this sort of an urban myth?
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Who knows? The FBI has a Highway Serial Killings Initiative. Apparently, 750 murder victims were found along or near highways between 2004 and 2016, the majority of which were lot lizards killed by truckers.
 
I have from time to time helped push a stalled vehicle off the road and into a safer spot (thinking of that person and of the ensuing traffic jam). I still hold the door for people and usually get thanked and sometimes I'll get asked for directions, so I give the best answer I know how.

Life has changed and it's become so difficult to just be nice to people. It is sad but it can make a person somewhat jaded.
 
For me it has to do with two things: as noted before cell phone coverage in my area is hit or miss depending on place, time of day, and carrier. That and no one seems to dress for winter. I quit carrying a "snatch" strap in my truck and now carry two chains because I got sick of people saying "back up and hit it harder". Nope. If I can pull you out gently with a chain I'll do it - need more you should call a wrecker. As my family owns a local wrecker company pulling people out ultimately costs me money and no I am not going to be one of the people who go "give me twenty bucks and I'll pull you out" with my truck. Either I do it or I tell you to call a wrecker.

Interesting story. The village about 8 miles from my house has a couple questionable areas - one that is pretty well known to manufacture meth. No big deal and most people don't give it much thought because there are so few people its not that big of a deal (yeh I know). I had been working building a bridge over the creek one day and needed to go pick up something from the hardware store. I got in my car and headed towards the village hardware. Along the way was a lady walking which really threw me. Not someone I recognized and I pulled over and asked if she needed help. She just wanted a ride to the gas station and I was about four miles away from where she wanted to go. The ditches in this area could easily conceal someone so I was at least paying some attention. She opened the door and looked at me a moment. I was going to the hardware store in town and may have been loosely concealing my pistol or just open carrying. She asked me "are you a cop" and when I told her no she got in anyways and proceeded to explain she didn't like cops.

It kind of threw me a little but not enough to be concerned. To the point of the presence of other people influencing things. Its true. Around my house it might be a long while before the next potential help comes by.
 
Where I live now? Nope. In my old home town, I didnt mind giving someone a jump or help change a tire. No hitchhikers for me. Luckily I live in an area that has excellent cell coverage, and I have AAA if I ever need a tow.
 
it is a simple fact that is easily confirmed that people are increasingly found to have mental illness, people are increasingly turning to both violent and petty crime, and in many jurisdictions and regions, violence increases with every year. our culture breeds uncivilized, even sociopathic behavior. people are rarely trained in how to behave properly and everywhere we turn the unspoken message is that being good is for sissies and dorks. we have reached a threshold, many years ago. when people trained their kids to be good, it increased the number of good people exponentially, raising hoodlums does the exact opposite. a sickly stunted tree growing in the wrong garden won't beget a fine orchard.

you can apply a law of entropy here. it takes energy to reduce chaos, and work to decrease it. many periods in world history contained great events that encouraged personal and cultural improvement while others encouraged entropy by apathy.

one on one influence can have more effect than an entire congregation. that's why we need to hold doors and say thank you, and assist others in need. there are those who can't be touched, but the effort should be made.

in all of the years that missionaries have served,its possible that the good influence made a difference.

i don't think i made that woman any less crazy, but helping the guy with the tire probably kept him from taking a bad day out on coworkers or the public.

we spend all of this time discussing how to react, but proactive steps like disarmingly smiling at the dangerous looking guy on the corner isn't part of our strategy
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Cook_(criminal)

A typical hitchhiker story was billy cook, a sociopathic spree killer from 1950. He had an apparent breakdown of some sort, hitchhiked around the country, and killed a number of people while doing it. I suspect that most hitchhiker problems range to robbery or carjacking, rather than violence like rape or murder, but there is still enough danger on both sides to make it a risky behavior.

So is opening the door for a guy who has a sample pack full of magazines.
 
Not really a good Samaritan but similar. When my car reached 256K miles it was prone to unexpected roadside adventures. Coming back from an IDPA match, my car decided to blow hoses and steam itself to death. Calling the AAA, the tow truck arrives.

On the way back, the driver acts what I do. I said that I was psych professor. So Mr. Driver starts telling me how he has to see a shrink for his anger control and violence. He can't talk to anyone for more than 10 minutes without flipping out.

Now, I have on full gun gear (quite concealed). Gun, mag, knives - the works. I think - oh, wow. Am I going to have to shoot the tow truck driver or go H2H/knife in the cab of the tow truck.

So, I say - really - tell me more about it. He starts to expound. I say - Hmm, so you feel that ... Tell me more.

Very Rogerian with unconditional positive regard and no explict suggestions.

I get home, say Bye Bye.
 
I have helped people many times before and will continue to do so. I am a bit sexist and usually only stop for women. I know a woman can rob you and shoot you dead just as quick as any man, but I have sisters and daughters. My hope is that paying it forward will encourage others to do the same rather than leaving them alone and stranded on the side of the road.

I was heading back to grad school and there were about 4-5 girls stuck on the side of the road. I let them use my cell phone first to call whoever they needed to call and let them determine the best course of action. This was a while back so not everyone had a cell phone back then. They asked for a ride a few miles away so I obliged. I was thinking of what COULD happen if I wasn't the one stopping to help them. There are sick people out there and human trafficking is still a very real problem.

I know there are risks, but I believe we need to do good when we can. Approach from a distance if possible. Look for possible hiding places. Look at body language. Are there others around (witnesses deter crime)?
 
I choose to believe him, but if you choose to believe he was lying because the incident doesn't fit your narrative then that's up to you

You used the terms "lying" and "coward," not me. I tend to believe people's stories unless I have reason not to, I just found it odd how similar the two stories were. I mentioned the oddity to my GF and she thinks maybe it was a way for hitch hikers to troll the Good Samaritan, and she used this quote as an example, "I could tell ya but then I'd have to kill ya," which anyone that's been around the military has probably heard before. It's not a real threat, just a bit of gallows humor but certain people could take it the wrong way.

The real tragedy is, how many people has that story prevented doing the right thing?

***
The last time I crossed NY was immediately after Winter Storm Stella hit in 2017. It was about 9 PM and I had just gotten into PA but I picked up a tail somewhere around Binghampton. The guy tailgated me into the rest stop, which I overlooked as "just another bad Yankee driver." I should have just kept going as I had never been tailgated going into a rest stop.

What I suspect they were doing was reading the plate to see I wasn't a local and making sure I was alone.

They pulled in front of the rest stop building while I went as far down the lot as I could go as I wanted seclusion to reload my weapons and continue my drive in comfort. However, most of the parking lot was blocked with deep snow and the spot I pulled into was reserved for police. I backed up but here came a guy from that car, running up to me. To his credit I could see both hands and he stayed about 5 feet from the car. I only rolled the window down about 2 inches. Here came the story!

"We're on our way to Buffalo, my child is in the car, and my wife is pregnant, we just need 7 more dollars to stay in a motel."

1). There were two other people in the car, and neither were children.
2). Who would be out, with child and pregnant wife, in sub freezing weather, the day after a winter storm that has shut down the interstate?
3). How do you get to Buffalo, which is in the north of New York, by driving south into Pennsylvania?

I calmly declined to which he began to stomp his feet, shake his fists, and scream obscenities. :eek: Since I had kept the car in gear and pointed at the exit, driving off was pretty easy. I reported what info I had to 911 and implored them to check it out.

See, I'm not always so trusting. :cool:
 
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