Good samaritan..

[RICHARD]

Have you ever been stuck in a situation and some stranger comes to your rescue????

Car problems, short on change or ????????

[wolflady]

Yes, when I was in high school (it was my senior year) we had really bad rain and roads were flooded. This was when I lived in Indiana. Anyway, I was driving into school, and there were cars backed up in our neighborhood! :eek: I thought I would be "smart" and take the backroads in. Bad move...because all the back roads were flooded because there is a river right there that had overflowed its banks. *duh* So, much to my chagrin, my minivan got stuck in the water on the road. I think the water was up to my door, so if I had opened my door to get out, the water would have flowed in. :eek: Of course, I started to panic and these people in their huge a$$ trucks were passing me by, but one good samaritan pulled alongside me and asked if I needed a "push". I said yes, so he got behind me and gave me a nudge so I was able to get out of the waterhole. He said that the rest of the backroad wouldn't be any better and that I should just get on the back road. Since I couldn't go back the way I came (I would just get stuck in that waterhole again) he told me a different way to go and said he would follow me to make sure I made it back onto the road. That was very nice of him, because that made him get stuck and sit in the horrendous traffic into town. I finally got to school 2 hours late and never got to thank the guy. It's nice that there are good people out there though:D

[slick]

Only time I can think of is years ago when I had my 1980 Toyota Corona and I was driving home from Penticton. The alternator went and some trucker pulled over and called BCAA for me, then drove off. Actually come to think of it he was kinda cute.

[primabella]

Well once a friend of mine offered to pay some money in my name, the amount of money depending on a baseball team's winnings. ;) Thanks again Richard. :)

[wolflady]

How could I forget this one??!! Last Christmas Eve, my sister-in-law flew in and her parents (my parents-in-law) went to pick her up at the airport. It was very snowy, and everything was delayed and by the time they picked her up it was way after midnight. Anyway, on the way home from the airport, my father-in-law slid off the road, but luckily made it back on. Later, the same thing happened, but they ended up in a ditch. A good samaritan stopped and asked if they needed help. They said yes (and it was 5am in the morning! :eek: ). The nice fella was able to pull them out with his truck and some very sturdy rope. They offered to pay him, and he said no, Merry Christmas:)

[RICHARD]

I was cut off by a car on my motorcycle...
I crashed....a gal stopped, took me to her house, let me use her phone, then dropped me off at the hospital...

I forgot to get her name but I have remembered her ever since!!

[Glacier]

Two winters ago, I got lost while I was out with my dog team. Took a gee where we should have Hawed. Ended up about 50kms from home and rapidly running out of daylight. The days are very short up here in the winter. I told my lead dog to pick a trail and she picked a driveway, the only house for miles and the only one with a phone! The owner let me call my husband--a long distance call. Hubby wasn't home. His wife made me tea and cookies while I waited to see if he would come home soon. An hour later still no luck. The homeowner loaded up my dogs in the back of his SUV, tied my sled to the top of the vehicle and drove me home! He refused to accept any money or even a bottle of wine from me. I later sent him a gift certificate to a local restaurant. I found out after the fact that he is a local film maker. I buy copies of all his movies now just to help support him! I could have easily been in serious danger if he hadn't been so helpful.

[ILoveMyAbbyGirl]

Some stupid old guy called me and my friend stupid for not knowing the bus came ever hour on Saturdays... :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Barbara]

We went hiking near Oceanside at the US West Coast (I think it's Oregon). As usual in my holidays it was raining cats and dogs and we were really wet. It was early in the year and the paths were dirty and we slid as we had lost our way. When we finally came to our car (had been talking for about one hour about wram showers etc) we found out that we had left the key in the car. Nobody else on the d*** parking lot in the middle of nowhere.
Then a Cadillac (big one) drove in. New York people, rich looking, elderly. We had to talk to them and they took 2 dirty foreigners speaking bad American in their clean car and drove 30 miles in the direction in which they not wanted to go but where the town was that was more likely to have a garage.

The owner of the garage was not there. But his 16 year old son drove back with us in his big SUV, together with his girlfriend. At our car, he phoned his father on the cellphone who helped him to use the gear to open it (kind of remote control;) ). Then we had our key again. For the boy driving 60 miles and opening our car I paid 45 US $ (seemed very cheap to me).

Of course the New Yorkers were the real Samaritans but all of that story gave me some confidence in humanity:)

Another person I have to mention shortly is Sherry from Budget Cars in Prince Rupert who helped us after we had ruined the 6 cylinders in Skeena River high water. A very good story but too long for now:p

[PayItForward]

For those who don't know London, England, the city is big and unfriendly like most of the people you meet there. :(

I was a student catching a train from Hatfield (Town Down South) via London (Capital) to my parental home town up North.

Unknow to me my return portion of my ticket had expired, when I bought the ticket they were valid for three months but they changed it to one month.

I was a homesick student who had riden to london with a ticket I thought was valid but when I tried to get the London train I found out my ticket was expired. I was stuck I had no money or cash, not even enough to use the pay phone. I asked the ticket inspector to ring my parents, so they could pay for a new ticket by credit card over the phone.

"It wasn't their policy" He said "and anyway they didn't take credit card payments due to the high fraud rate in London."

I just sat on my rucksack and wept, I had no way to get back to my student digs 30 miles away or 180 miles away to my home.

A lady approached me and asked why I was so upset, I explained. She offered to pay my fare home
:eek: She told me I could sent it back to her when I could afford it.

I was so surprised, London is full of fraud artists, that is why the train staff wouldn't help me, they had been hardened to sob stories before.

I explained that I couldn't take expensive train fare off a stranger but asked to borrow a couple of coins for the phone. I rang home and my father drove to the nearest station near my parental home to pay for a ticket.

My angel said she would treat me to a cup of tea and a bun instead of the train fare, which I enjoyed. She explained that she had been homesick when she was a student and could stand to see me so upset, that I had remainded her of herself.

God Bless her, I hope karma has been very very good to her. :D

She taught me that there is good people everywhere ....even London !!!

[CathyBogart]

Wow, I like reading all these stories! I don't have any quite so big to share, but there was a day at my last job when it was unbelievably hot and our a/c had broken. I mentioned to a co-worker that I was thirsty, and a few minutes later a customer I had just rung up returned with a drink for me!! It was such a sweet gesture, and well appreciated!

[Tonya]

Good samaritan....

When my neighbor stole my dogs and dumped them off, a group of people were good smaritans. I am assuming that they were homeless by their appearance (sorry for being judgemental) and the fact they were at a park known for it's homeless encampments. They found my dogs, played with them, fed them, even took them swimming in the river. I know they didn't have much money, but they managed to call me several times from a payphone until they got ahold of me. My dogs had such a great time with them. When my husband and I gave them the reward money, the guy started crying. It broke my heart because that made it obvious that he didn't expect a reward and really needed the money.

A person that made me feel really special...

Two years ago, I went to an old old old run down apartment building to repair a phone line for a woman. (I work for the phone company in construction, but help out in repair during storms.) It was storming pretty bad and I was having a hard time with her phone lines since the building was so old and big. I was up on the telephone pole outside of the building in the wind and rain for a few hours trying to get her lines working. When I finally fixed them, I went to her apartment to tell her. We got to chatting and she kind of had a silly smile, but didn't let on. This woman was an artist and poet, so we chatted about poetry a bit and she showed me some of her work.

Like a month later, I get a call from the dispatch department telling me I have to go back to a customers house to fix her line. I told dispatch that I am in the construction not repair department, so they must be mistaken. The dispatcher said "I know, but this lady is insisting on you coming back, so the management said I could page you. She will not stop calling until you come back." So, I went back all worried thinking she's mad and I must have made her lines worse.

She presented me with a beautiful abstract canvas painting of myself on a telephone pole and a collection of poems and quotes about strong-willed women. It was the coolest most special thing.

[Fox-Gal]

So many times people have helped me out, once stuck in DC because of a snow storm and the airport was shut down. A sweet woman, got me a cab and took me to the train station, bought me dinner and sent me off on the train back to N.Y.C..

Then the turck drive that changed my flat tire on the side of a mountain, repacked my car (i was moving so it was packed) and bought me breakfast, then lead me through 2 states. Save me hours off my trip. I tell people now if they ever ask, Do you know how to change a tire? I say yes wait for a truck driver. :D

Then their was the lady that saved my life, I will never forget her. I owe her everything. She found me, bandaged my wounds the best she could and stayed with me till they found a family member. On top of all that she came to see me ever day for about a month, brought me, food, books, flowers etc.
I still talk to her, she lives in Port st. Lucie, only 1 hour away.

[Dakota's Mommy]

I was always lucky enough while I was living at home for my car to break down either in the drive way, or in a parking lot where I could go in and make a phone call. So, I either would just get a rid with a friend or one of my parents would be able to come get me and then dad and I would do what we could with the car that evening to work towards getting it fixed. When we moved here, I was really worried about it since the only person I knew at the time was my husband. We got me a cell phone and I've always got it charged and close by just incase. It kind of worries me without him here to fix the car, but we do have great friends who I believe would go out of their way to do what they could to help me as much as they could! I just pray that my luck in the past never runs out so that I will always have trouble in places that I can easily get help and have somebody familiar be my help!

However, on the way back from Mississippi last October Brian and I stopped at a gas station just after we got back into Texas. As he was pumping gas and I was sitting with Dakota (before we got the other 2), a guy had walked over asking if Brian had any tools because he was helping some lady with her car that had broke down on the highway. So, we pulled off to that part of the gas station after we pumped our gas and paid to also be of help! I got out to stretch my legs with Dakota while Brian (he's a mechanic) helped the guy work on her car. After leaving, Brian told me that she kind of had that look on her face when the one guy was the only one helping her that she felt weird about it. I'm just glad that we were there at the time and could help her and, at least it appeared, to help her relax knowing it wasn't just her and a strange man! I know I would always feel better if a couple pulled off to be of assistance too! It's nothing against guys, but this world really can be scarey these days!

[gini]

I think I have shared this story before, but it is one I will never forget.

We were invited to a special dinner for a friend which was being held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. There were over a dozen of us and a friend thought it would be fun if we all went there in his motorhome together.

We made arrangements to pick up a woman who was closing her shop - and she had, in cash, her entire sales for the day with her.

We proceeded on the freeway to Long Beach and in the worst section of Los Angeles area, a city named Compton, the motorhome broke down.

A car pulled up ahead of us and the most unsavory looking guy started walking back to us.

Just then, a brown mini-van pulled up and a black man jumped out and came towards us as well. We explained what had happened - and he immediately waved off the unsavory fellow in firm language.

The black man owned a repair shop in the area. He called his tow truck operator and made him come to get us. He called his wife to bring their other van. He towed the motorhome to his shop with was surrounded by iron gates and had two guard dogs on duty. He then gave us his brown mini-van and said "return it tomorrow and your motorhome will be repaired when you arrive."

It turned out the mechanical problem with the motorhome was minor and the cost was under $60.00. The best our friend could get him to accept, was a full tank of gas for his van.

All of us squeezed into the mini-van and proceeded to the restaurant - pretty certain that an angel had just delivered us from a certain disaster.

[Fuzzy317]

I have had Good Samaritans help me. I try to be one when I can.

I try to be a good samaritan by helping with pet transports.

[Ally Cat's Mommy]

You may or may not be aware of this, but car hijacking (usually very violent) is rampant in South Africa.

About 8 years ago I went to a rather unsavoury part of town to pick up a birthday present for my hubby. (It was some off-road gear that I needed to pick up from a bike shop). As it was a typical Saturday morning of running errands, I had all 3 kiddies in the car with me (they would then have been around 3, 5 and 6). When I had loaded my purchases in the boot, and strapped all the kids back in, I climbed in, locked the doors and suddenly a red Golf pulled up in front of me and a white SUV behind me, boxing me in.

It was almost like slow-motion.... One guy got out of the SUV and started walking towards the front passenger door. Just then someone knocked on my drivers-side door. I turned to look and there was a REALLY scruffy looking biker/mechanic standing next to the car. I cracked the window open and he said "Lady, it looks like we have a little problem here. How about you and the kids come into my shop for a little while...." THEN I noticed he has a HUGE spanner in his hand, and two other guys were walking out of the workshop also carrying "weapons". As soon as the hijackers realised that this wasn't going to be an easy job, the front car pulled off, and I just rammed the car into gear and took off as well.

I never went back to say thanks to the bikers in the workshop, as I have never again been able to bring myself to drive into that part of town.... but I am pretty sure that they saved my life that day!

(Just a side note to this - typically what happens is this - as security systems in cars improve, it is harder for thieves to steal parked cars, so they tend to take cars by force whilst the righful owners are driving them. Of course this occasionally happens with children strapped in the back seat - with horrible consequences.)

This is one of the reasons we decided to leave South Africa. My husband also had his hand slashed open by a would-be robber who the police were trying to aprehend in our yard (we arrived home in the middle of it). We realised how "hard" we had become when we managed to avoid another attempted hi-jacking, and didn't even call the police, just had the car repaired and went to work like usual!