Helping potentially stranded people.

[Royd]

So, a carjacker stopped to help a murderer.........

 

[MeatKing]

I used to stop and help people all the time. Now that I have kids not so much.. I'm always on a sceduale etc. I have called polive a few times for people stranded.

Before kids, I once helped a "very clean cut guy on a morotcycle" He didn't charge his new battery properly, and kept losing power.. Every few km. I jumped him 3 or 4 times, and followed him all the way home, to make sure he made it..

He called me his Florence Nightingale

I also drove a man home, that had a flat, he didn't have a spare...

feel bad, but now that I have a family, I have way more to lose!

I'm aslo a woman and in -20 had an entire highway of people drive by me when I had a flat.. grr I changed it myself, but if I wasn't so mad I probley wouldn't have got those bolts off!!

 

[dainerra]

I don't stop for anyone that I don't know. Not even women with children. Why? because there is always a chance that they are just using the kids as a decoy. The same for elderly people. You think elderly crooks just retire when they get old?

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=7658197
http://www.casttv.com/video/7afb5as/police-child-used-as-decoy-in-robbery-video
http://www.fugitive.com/2011/01/04/...es-baby-as-bait-for-home-invasion-watch-here/

Now if I have the boys, I have been known to offer a ride, but for some reason people don't take me up on that

 

[LittleChickenLady]

My boyfriend and I stopped to help a man once on a scooter. He looked like he was about to wreck.. and thought he needed help. He told us he ran out of gas, and asked if we could help him. We said yes, and went down to get him a gallon of gas so he could make it to the station himself. When we got it and went back, he was gone..

We figured he was planning to scam someone, or he got other help while we were gone (for a whole seven minutes).

If I hadn't been with my boyfriend I probably would've kept on driving.

 

[fuzziebutt]

I will stop and help a stranded motorist if I feel led to. I had to go the next biggest town, about an hour away, along the main road between Birmingham and Memphis. On the way, I noticed an older car with the 2 dirty looking guys standing out beside it, with a sign that read "Need Jumper Cables". I said a small prayer for them, and stayed my course. On the way home, I saw them, still there, and looking soooo cold, still with the sign. I knew I had jumper cables with me, and as I passed them, I felt the awfullest conviction to stop and help. They didn't LOOK like the kind of people that a small woman by herself would stop to help. I prayed as I turned around at the next exit, that if I wasn't God's will for me to stop, then they would be gone by the time I got back. They were still there. I pulled up, and they were so friendly, and they said that they had been out there over an hour, and that no one would stop, and that they had been praying that someone would. The were headed to Memphis, and said that they weren't gonna stop the car again until they got there! It is such a blessing to us when we can be a blessing to others!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Nowadays most have cellphones, and help is on the way within minutes.

It's not worth the risk to stop if it's not a life or death situation such as a wreck

 

[Beekissed]

Where I live, cell phones have very little reception, so if someone doesn't stop, no one gets help. Also live in steep mountains and cold winters, so expecting someone to walk to get help is kind of a hard line to take.

I'm a woman but I stop each and every time someone looks like they are in trouble~I live very rural, so the majority of the people here are just that...people. Not monsters.

Having said that, there are times I will drive by a hitch-hiker when I'm by myself....hitch-hiker with a pack tells me he's not local. Hitch-hiker with a gas can or grocery bags...yeah, I'll pick him up and even drive out of my way to see that he gets home.

I don't normally worry about getting killed...if it happens, it does. If it doesn't, I stepped out on faith and maybe helped someone else in their life.

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Same here.

However, I'm in California and have the benefit of working for the largest law enforcement agency within the state and all over the state. Our officers are required to either stop and provide assistance to stranded motorists, or to radio the location to Dispatch for someone else to check (if they are transporting a prisoner or are on the way to a hot call).

CHP dispatchers are REQUIRED to ask a woman using a call-box if she is alone, and if she is not, if there is an adult male over 18 with her. They are REQUIRED to assign the call to an officer. They are also REQUIRED to advise the caller (male or female) NOT to accept help from any passersby - to wait for either an officer, the automobile road service of their choice, or friends or family - and they'll make that call for 'em. (They may select a "rotation" tow company contracted by the department. If they don't have a way to pay for the service, or no friends or family can be reached, an officer is dispatched to AT LEAST take them to the nearest safe location with a pay phone where they can make other arrangements.

Granted, there are a whole lot of rural areas where a CHP officer - or even a sheriff's deputy - may not be patrolling for a some time. I now live in such an area. There are spots where I cannot get any cell phone coverage. If I break down, I do hope one of the locals will stop to assist me, even if it's just to get to a good coverage area and make a call FOR me.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

We live part of the year where cell phone service is extremely sporadic, and doesn't exist at all for long stretches. We will stop sometimes, or drive to the nearest area where we can use either a landline or the cellphone to call for help.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Quote:

Yeah, actually that went through my head too (not you specifically Royd...lol).
But now days it's even scary accepting help from strangers, especially if you're a woman and a man stops to help you when it's really early or late, or you're in an isolated area. And often (sadly), we do judge by looks. So if the man isn't clean cut looking (ie looks "safer") we worry more. Of course the clean cut guys generally don't change their own tires or know a carburetor from their butt (just generalizing - no offense to any clean cut mechanically inclined out there).

Ted Bundy was very clean cut. I saw him once; I didn't know who he was until I saw him on TV years later; it was about 1974. He was in town to probably try to murder another coed.