woman broke down on the road... Help or no?

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Hemicuda

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I was just in the next town over, taking my Girlfriend to lunch, on her lunch hour... (ain't that what a good boyfriend does?)

We had just left her workplace and were on our way to find a restaraunt, when a twentysomething girl with a 2 year old appeared, walking down the road, with a rather beat-up green Dodge Neon parked IN THE MIDDLE OGFF THE ROAD AHEAD...

My GF anf I agreed to see if she needed help... and drove up... (it was also only about 12 degrees out) The girl told us that she had run out of gas (evidenced by the car in the DRIVING LANE ahead)

We loaned her my cell, and she tried to call home, reached SOMEONE but they didn't have a car to come help... SO, MY GF offers her a ride... (in MY truck!) and off we go, to give Mom and child a ride to her house a half mile away...

I'm all for 2 year olds not freezing to death, and all that, but I'm also not for getting robbed or even attempted robbery... (I had a S&W Mod. 410 .40 Cal, butt forward, in an uncle mikes cordura holster between the drivers seat and console, so I wasn't worried)

Question is, would you all have picked her up and given her a ride? what did I do right or wrong? (I don't mind helping, BUT was this tactically bad?

ALSO, what in the name of all that is holy, is a mother doing endangering her child by loading her up in a car and taking off with NO GAS in the thing? (where she crossed main street and went one block, if she'd have turned right or left, and gone 1/2 block EITHER way, she'd have MADE it to a fuel stop!)
 
Honestly since you were with another person I would be more inclined to do the same. I may be naive but it just seems that I would find it very hard to believe that she would have been out to get you.
 
a) Ya did right, I think. Life ain't always about tactics and looking for potential avenues of escape when inadvertantly caught in an L-Shaped Ambush.

b) People just mess up sometimes.
Ain't no big thaing...

Biker:)
 
I would have done the same thing. I'm sure there are probably robbers that use such tactics to dupe their prey, and they may rob me some day because of it. But I feel we've become a sad society when we're too scared, or too indifferent to help our fellow citizens when in need.
 
I agree..........you did the right thing. Believe it or not, there are single parents out there who are barely getting by. Feel good about it.
 
Ya done good.

Can't fault her for not stopping to gas up, even thought it's down from last summer, have you noticed gas prices lately?

Maybe she thought she could make it to where she was going on the gas she had, or HOPED she had.

In any event, all is well, and you can be glad you helped someone. In the society we live in 99% of the people out there are by and large good people, it's that 1% we have to watch for, and since we don't know who's who, 99% of the people pay for the stupidity/selfishness/cruelty of the others.
 
First question. Was she good looking?;)

Seriously though, I think it was a good call. Being in rural Texas I'll stop to aid any motorist, especially since some of the roads I travel are not heavily trafficed and it could be a long wait until someone else drives by. Quite a few times on Hwy 281 I've pulled over at night ot aid someone to discover that they have no cell phone signal and have been waiting for hours. I'd like to say I've been doing this forever but I only started after getting my CHL, it provides a little added confidence.

Thomas
 
trust my gut

i live in a fairly safe part of the world but even when i didn't i try to help folks out. if they are running a scam so what? thats on them not me. and i would find it hard to pass a lady with a kid, not that paranoid. funny things appearances though i once stopped to help out a guy who had a style i call early american gangbanger. he was in a snow filled ditch we eventually got him out. i found out that he was the local equivalent of a gang banger. who was stuck in a ditch and needed help. he said thankyou profusely and we went on our seperate ways. the neighb ors found out i'd helped him and clued me in on his bad boy rep. but he was still a dude stuck in the ditch. i've been scammed more by folks who "looked ok"
 
To answer an earlier post, she was a tall, curvaceous, leggy girl, not at all overweight, with long blonde hair, and painted on jeans that fit RIGHT...

My girlfriend, whom I love with all my heart, and is a SHORT, leggy, curvaceous girl with no fat on her, and long blonde hair was already sitting right next to me...

trust me, I KNOW I couldn't handle two of them, ans I'll keep the one I have, thanks...
 
A car in the middle of the road - not a good trap. One hundred percent chance that the police will stop and investigate if they happen by, and will be there until the car is moved. If it just starts right up, big trouble for the bad guy.

Car on the side of the road with hood up - more likely to be a trap. Cops might not stop, and if they do, it is easy to explain, and is already off the road, thus making it more likely that the cops will leave without investigating.

I'd help someone whose car was in the middle of the road.
 
You can't have rules to cover every situation, sometimes you have to use your judgment.
I would've pushed the car off the road before I left the scene.
 
Help or no?

Help.

You did just fine. If you give someone a ride to their house or whatever, just pull up to the general area (say a block away, within easy walking distance), don't get out of the vehicle yourself and leave the engine running if you need to make a quick getaway. I did something similar myself once - but I didn't go unarmed.
 
This is a good reason to have a AAA card (no I don't work for them) 1 call would have them gas and on their merry way.
With the weather as cold as it is I'd stop and get them to someplace warm at least then call the local LEO and advise them of the situation.
 
I almost picked up a hitchhiker yesterday. It wouldn't have inconvenienced me, he was about a mile from the town he was walking toward (that I had to drive through on the way home from hunting) and I was in my truck, so I could have just had him get in the bed and not had to risk letting him in my cab.

My dad always told me to help people if I could without endangering myself, but not to pick up hitchhikers. I've changed folks tires, called them a tow truck, called the police, called their family, but I can't recall ever picking up somebody on the side of the road.
 
Usually if I am driving down the pike and see a car off the side of the road with people around it I will call *77 on my cell and tell the police the situation and what mile marker they are at and keep on going. (15 years ago I would have stopped but the world is not what it was 15 years ago and police get paid to do these things so I am giving them job security)

The situation you were in I would have helped as well. Would have been doing a lot of scanning the area but I would have helped.

Had a similar thing happen to me once:

1:15 AM I hear a pounding on my door and look out the window and see 3 teenagers going from door to door.

My wife and I got in the car and left the garage using the door opener and drove down to the kids

I made them come round to my side and dealt with one of them. Found out they hit a moose and needed help and the girl hurt her knee

So we brought them in the house (where my dogs are) wrapped the girl up in a quilt and gave them coffee. Then my wife called the police and explained what was going on.

Cops showed up and all was well except their truck which upon inspection smelled like pot.:uhoh: :uhoh:

Went back to sleep and went to work the next day

Kid
 
In Montana there are miles and miles of lonely roads, much of which do not have cell service. Anyway, 10 or 15 years ago cell phones were virtually unknown. Heck, we canceled ours because it doesn't work from where we live, though supposedly it will still work for 911 (never had to try it). Though usually I have my VFD radio with me while driving. ;)

I stop to help people unless it looks like they already have the situation under control or they are near an occupied house or in town, where they can easily walk to a phone.

I am cautious and armed, but I'm not going to just leave somebody stranded. We've also had people show up on our doorstep with car problems.

People around here in general watch out for each other because of the harshness of the land and climate.
 
The right thing for sure

I would have done the same thing. I'm sure there are probably robbers that use such tactics to dupe their prey, and they may rob me some day because of it. But I feel we've become a sad society when we're too scared, or too indifferent to help our fellow citizens when in need.
Click to expand...
I agree whole heartedly.
You did the right thing. I would have done the same given these particulars of the situation.
ALSO, what in the name of all that is holy, is a mother doing endangering her child by loading her up in a car and taking off with NO GAS in the thing?
Click to expand...
Well, unfortunately some people don't have 1/2 the common sense God gave a crowbar. She is lucky you were there to help her.
 
Some folks just don't remember to look at the gas gauge.
My wife confidently told me she had enough gas to get work one morning.

"Well, you better put some in after work today."
"OK."

She ran out of gas 75 yards from our driveway.
I put the lawnmower gas in the car and that got her to the station.
She's a little better about looking at the gauge now, but I still have to remind her at times.

I would have stopped to help a woman with a small child. but would have been scanning the area too.
Might have armed my wife with my second gun--if I was carrying it.
 
Look at it this way...

If it was your girlfriend, your mother, or your sister walking down the road in the freezing cold trying to get to a gas station, or trying to change a flat tire on the side of the road, wouldn't you want someone to give them a hand? Sure, what you hope is that they're never in that situation, but sometimes crap happens and that's just life.

That's just how I see it. Security and caution are important, but if my wife is ever in that situation I hope someone will help her out, so it would be hypocritical of me not to help someone else's wife, daughter, sister, etc.

To tell you the truth, though... this comes up a lot less now than it used to. I don't know if cars are just more reliable than they used to be, or if it's the fact that everybody's got a cell phone these days. I used to find myself stopping to give someone a hand once a month or so, but it's probably been a year or more since I've needed to do that.
 
When we get to the place where we won't stop to help another, and call the police instead , we have become what we hate. That does not mean to turn off the attention though, you still have to maintain awareness, just in case.
You did a honorable thing.
 
I've stopped to help people more times than I can remember. Up here is kinda like it is out west, very remote and the land/climate is bitter.
 
I would always choose to stop and help some one. The risk of them having ulterior motives is minimal compared to your risks of injury from an inattentive driver though. So when every you stop in or along a driveway get out of the way and watch to your rear.
 
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