Do The Right Thing.

Driving home tonight I see someone wobbly walking down RT 176. Its a busy 2 lane road with no sidewalk. And its about 10 degrees out without the 20mph gusts. The person is hunched over wearing a plastic bag.

Snap decision. I pull into the median, throw on the hazards and wait. I'm going to give this person a ride. They stumble up to the car. I roll down the window.

"GET IN!"

"Hnnngh. Urdrr, urr, oh thanks youuu."

The haggard lady is about 55 and drunk or high as a skunk. Oh, boy. She is disorientated  I ask where she is headed, and I'd take her there.

"Uhh...RIGHT!" tThen comes the story. Kicked out. No where to go. My mind races to think of where to take her. She's still thanking me. We drive by the police station. I don't take her there. Not sure if she'd bolt or get twitchy. Plan B: Library. Its open for another 1.5hrs, she can get warm, and it will buy me time to figure this out. She's crying. At the Library, I have to help her up 10 steps. She nearly falls up every one. Bad shape. I make her sit in the entrance. No need to cause a ruckus.

I explain to the front desk the situation and am told to ask the Adult Services. They know what to do.

"Ma'm can you help me-(The Ruckus has now entered the library proper (crying))-...with that?"

Myself and a librarian calm her down. She start to sit in the doorway. I help her up. She has a death grip on my hand. She's afraid.

" You're nah gunna leave-PLEASE DON'T LEAVE"

I tell her I won't. Tell her that someone (the police, but I'm not telling her that) is coming in a half hour to help her. I promise her. I get her to a chair and reassure her again that help is coming. I can see her finally, visibly, relax.

That last I heard, was the police were coming. Even if she ends up in the drunk tank, she will be warm tonight.

Some may say that you didn't know her. Didn't know what she'd do. She might have killed you.

Well...then I died trying to help someone.

And I can live with that.

Appleseed, you likely saved a life today.  You also made my day.  All is not lost, there are still decent people in the world.

Thank you

I forced a drunk driver to the curb once and took his keys, and then drove him to a hotel. I was terrified that if I did not do something he was going to kill himself or someone else. (Pre Cel phone era) He was a big angry guy and I was shaking in my boots but I did what I thought was the right thing. Sometimes you need to step way out of your comfort zone to improve a situation.

+1 thank you for sharing ... the world needs more people willing to give up some of their own comfort to help a poor soul

Good on you

Good job apple, thanks for looking out for your fellow humans.  

Good job man. If we don't do the little things to help out our fellow travelers, where do we end up? Getting involved is scary, frustrating, and sometimes not the safest call...but we still should. Even if you only helped her for last night, that's worth it.

Good man! The world needs more of your sort! You should be proud!

People need to stop being afraid of each other and do exactly what you did. The discomfort of helping is not even comparable against the positive impact you do.

You did a good thing. I'm not surprised how it snowballed, that's how it always seems to happen, right after the story comes out.

In about 1981 I was racing horses at The meadowlands. I drove over to Yonkers to watch one of our horses race. On my way back into the meadowlands complex, I passed an old car on the shoulder with a broken ball joint.

It was 11 at night and the temperature was in the low 50s. As I passed the car I could see there were people in it, including children. It was very unlikely that anyone else was going to pass that spot again before the next day.

I stopped and turned around and picked up the family. The woman barely spoke English, and I'm not even passable in Spanish. She was able to ask me if I would take them to Union City, about 45 minutes away. She had an address written on a piece of paper in Spanish.

2 hours later, we finally found the address. No one was answering the door. There was no plan B, and now I didn't know what to do with these people. I drove them to a Catholic Church, but no one answered the door at the rectory.

We started to look for a police station, since I knew we needed help and I needed to leave this family somewhere.

Finally found one, without getting shot by the drug dealers we tried to ask for directions. The cops didn't want us to leave them there either but I convinced them that it was either that or on the side of the road somewhere. 

Escaped IL female mental patient makes her way to a local library with the help of an unknown accomplice and stabs three librarians. Story at 11:00.

Just kidding. Your a good guy.

I just passed a guy this afternoon, walking his bike up a hill. I could tell he wasn't doing it for the exercise, as he was wearing jeans - and most cyclists don't walk their bikes up a hill. 

Did I mention it was 1°?

I turned around and pulled over, and saw that he had a flat, plus it was an e-bike, so it was heavy. Told him to throw his bike in the back, "no one should be out in this cold" 

'Jonathan' was in his 60s, lost his license after a stroke a few years ago, and the resulting seizures. This is his second e-bike. He put about 11k on the first one, in two years. He's had problems with flat tires on this one, though. 

When he told me where he lived, a block north of a really good meat market, I commented that I'd stop for some brats. He offered me a coupon for a box (two dozen!) free brats, for giving him a ride. "It's the least I can do. Everyone else just drove by."

Stay warm, tonight Jonathan. 

gearheadmb said:

Escaped IL female mental patient makes her way to a local library with the help of an unknown accomplice and stabs three librarians. Story at 11:00.

Just kidding. Your a good guy.

 

I’ve never wanted to watch the local news from OP’s hometown until now!

Update: The lady left her hat in my car. I called the PD dispatch to figure out how to get it back to her. Dispatch said officers were talking to her at the time, and gave me the lead officer's voice mail.  

He called back today. I explained the situation. I said it was none of my business, and I didn't want specifics, but I asked if she was ok. Her husband came and got her. He said, with my permission, that he would call the husband and give him my phone number so we could figure out how to get it back to her. 

He thanked me for talking a chance and getting her out of the cold.

yeah.  i used to walk the city ( ahem small town ) a lot.  screaming baby in a car on 90 degree day whilst all the planet savers walked past for 3 mins until the silly mom came back.  It was in deep deep really cool shade in an already air cooled car but still a screaming baby and I was the only one to stop and wait.  berkeleying amazing considering how much E36 M3 these chilluns' give me for my apparel.  Now and then would roust a drunkard to see if they were breathing not mugged or stand by them until a cop showed up ( dispatch was always surprised that I would wait ).

I'll admit to not giving the apparently semi-crippled guy a $20 bill for his two $10 bills in the atrium ATM this afternoon because that's just weird and I thought I'd just deposited all my 20s in the ATM.  Forgot I had three left. 

but yeah man you went above and beyond the call there.  Surprised to hear she is married and not indigent. 

Several years ago I was pulling onto the 401 at about 5:00 pm on an October night (so, fairly dark already) and went past what I finally figured out was a late-middle-aged woman walking down the shoulder of the highway, dressed all in black.  (Of course.)  I called it in to the Provincial Police, but by the next exit I had convinced myself that that wasn't enough, so I got off the highway again, looped around, and pulled over beside her.  Turns out she was on her way to the Russian Orthodox Church a couple of blocks away, so that's where we went.  "You are good boy," she told me.  After I got her inside, where the service was already in progress, I cornered a young couple and asked if they knew the woman I had just brought in.  Yes they certainly did; she was a stalwart member of the church.  I explained what had happened, and their eyes got as big as saucers.  I asked if she had any family in the neighbourhood; she had a rich and successful son, but he lived in Toronto, and the two of them were usually either arguing or not speaking.  However, I was assured that the couple would inform Father Mikhail, and he would lay down the law as her priest and there would be no more walking down the 401.  Then I called the police dispatcher back to cancel the call; I did my best to explain the whole story, but I have to say it all sounded pretty weird even to me.

Nice work Apple, the world needs more folks like you.  If we all just helped each other a little and took a few minutes to understand that we all need each other, the world would be an awesome place. Great job, you win the GRM'r of the day.