I applaud you all for keeping cool and making it through what you have alive. Your stories scare me and I appreciate that. I want to be prepared as best as possible. TV these days makes violence seem normal, rational and okay. Its okay to watch as long as it doesn't happen to you....right? Again, I could not imagine having to deal with your situations. Mobs, natural disasters, etc. I don't think I'd make it.
I have a few SHTF stories myself but nothing as freightening as a riot, 9/11, or robbers. When I was about 13 we were walking down the street of a near by town. All of a sudden we heard this terrible crash and screeching of tires. A large LTD size car had run into a light pole and the tires continued to spin out. It turns out the driving was a handicapped person taking a driving test with the driving examiner and he had had a seisure while driving. His car was operated by hand controls. When he has the seisure he veered into the pole and his hands clinched the accelerator. The driver died almost immediately, but the poor drivers examiner was still in the car, tires screaming. I wanted to run over there, open the door and shut the car off before someone else got hurt. I just stood there dumb founded watching this unfold. Pretty soon the engine over heated and hot steam shot back into the front seat, scalding the corpse and the DE. The rescue crew was there fast as small towns generally have a lot of volunteers who have businesses in town.
I thought about that situation after that frequently. I promised myself that if I could lend aid to someone in need, I would. Well, this promise has almost landed me in some bad situations. One night(I must have been 17) I saw this vagrant standing in front of the gas station in my town(pop. 5,000). It was a very cold night and I felt sorry for him. He said he was a Lakota Native American in his 40s. I asked him if there was a way I could help him. He asked me to give him a ride to a place where he could camp for the night. I abliged and I helped him load his garbage sack full of belongings. I asked him where he was from and where he was traveling to. It seemed okay for a while but then he started to cry(well more like fake cry,as if he had done it time after time before) and say how had no money and all he needed was $10 and he was just hungry and need some place warm to stay. I feel blessed that I did NOT invite him to stay at my home. I took him to a camping site right on the edge of town. I told him I would bring him some food and and something warm to drink. As I drove away, something just weirded me out. I decided that I couldn't go back because I was becoming concerned about the way this guy acted. I called my pastors house and spoke with his wife. She said to call the police and they would put him up in a motel for the night(the local churches pool money to aid needy families/vagrants coming through) I thanked her, called the police and went home, feeling as though I deserted someone who needed my help.
Sometime later, my parents got a message on the answering machine from the pastors wife. She said it was important that I call the Police station and talk to them. It turns out this guy died a few weeks after that night. He was a pedophile, homosexual, with AIDS, hepatitus, and another nasty disease. I believe they said he died of the AIDS. After the police put him up the motel for the night, he shot up on drugs and tore up the motel room really bad. I am so thankful that I didn't invite him to my house. I play through mind what I would have done had he attacked me. I didn't know he had AIDs and other stuff at the time. That was a wake up call for me. I still struggle with it today. Should I risk it all and be the good semaritan, or bunker down in my hole with MREs and my rifle and not come out?
Thanks for listening
Ss
