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Giving a random stranger a ride in your vehicle when they ask for help

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I rarely drive, but I picked up a couple roughly my age on new year's eve once. They were waiting for the bus and there aren't many buses at that time so I figured I could help.
 
Man, this thread is depressing that y'all too scared to pick people up.

Guess it's a different environment in Canada/B.C and Australia compared to the USA.
 
wormstrangler said:
Man, this thread is depressing that y'all too scared to pick people up.

Guess it's a different environment in Canada/B.C and Australia compared to the USA.
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Eh. You do know that cops eventually pick up Hitchhikers, right? Oh and in Canada and US, Hitchhiking is restricted in certain areas. Cops will pull you over if they see you do it and though they will not ticket you, they will question you and the hitchhiker.

The one thing I hate about hitchhikers is their demands tenfold the moment they sit in your car. Getting dropped off at the corner of the road? Not anymore, they're not?!

Also, I rather be safe than sorry as their are a lot of cases with shit turning bad.
 
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I don't give strangers rides in the car. On a couple of occasions I've paid for cab rides for people to get where they need to go, and once I bought someone a bus ticket. I'll give people who ask for gas money a fiver. But I'm not going to let someone I don't know get into the car with me. That's asking for trouble.
 
I never give strangers a ride in my car. There have been a couple times when I was approached and they seemed really desperate but I just had to put my foot down and say no. Why should it be my responsibility for them to get to where they need to go? How did they end up at this place in the first place? Surely they can get back. Giving a stranger a ride in your car can be one of the most dangerous things you do, so don't do it.
 
I've been approached a few times at gas stations while I'm filling up, and they always have some excuse as to why they can't walk or take the bus to some seemingly close destination. After I continually refused this one guy who wouldn't quit asking, he got agitated and started screaming that he would "fucking stab me." Thankfully, there happened to be a cop sitting at the station. I immediately pointed that out to the guy, then went and told the cop about him as soon as he walked away.

So in short, no, I will not be giving any random strangers a ride.
 
Almost every week on the way up this hill going home from work there is an old man with a bunch of bags from the local grocery store standing on the sidewalk. He's got his thumb out and he looks very tired from walking up this very steep and long hill. The bags and loaded with food, too much for just one person so there must be someone else at whatever place he calls home that is waiting for him.

And you know what?

Fuck that old man, he isn't getting in my car.
 
It totally depends on the circumstances, and I would preface it by telling them that I have no problem giving them a ride if they had no problem with me being ready to crash the car and kill us both if they tried to pull some shit. I generally see people at night when I'm going to work though, and that's a no. I need to get to work, not raped and mutilated by some old hippie.

Though, I've been on the other end of the situation and appreciate the help. I went walking on Maui one day and took a wrong turn, wound up walking like two hours out of my way. It was to the point that I couldn't even really bend my legs any more, so I sat on a barricade thing on the side of the road. Some guy pulled up in a truck and gave me a lift to town. Pretty cool, and equally cool that he didn't murder me or something.
 
RiccochetJ said:
Has anyone else gone through this sort of thing here?
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These are scam artists and I have experienced the same thing. There's a few popular ones, and almost all of them reduce to getting money, most are not to get rides, but that is the pretense... and they say, "Can I get a ride," and you say uhh no, then they say "well can you spare like $3 or $4 for a cab.. I've got $18 but I just need $22 to get downtown and then take the train home."

It's all a scam. I was scammed once by a guy who got me, and I thought, y'know, I'll help this guy out. Then my friend told me the same guy approached him with the same story a ~year before in a nearby area. In the last few years, I've seen him around that area 2 or 3 times scamming people. I called him out on it once. He was a respectable looking guy, normal looking, and he had a back story of being out-of-duty service man who served on XXXXX ship... He needed $X to get to the train downtown and take it to a nearby city where his car was in the shop or something. I gave him like $5 and he was like, yknow, if you have anymore.. I'm $8 short for the cab & train fair, and so igave him $8. It was only like $13 or $14 in the end, but it was within a few minutes after that I just realized I was a sucker.

It really infuriated me a year or so later when I saw him scamming this elderly guy telling him the same story. So I walked up and called him out on it and told the elderly guy not to help him because he was trying to scam him. The elderly guy was obviously a former serviceman and wanted to help him based on his story.

Something similar happened to me about 3 months ago. Younger guy, 20s, this time, and a much more dangerous case. Approaches me while I'm sitting at a street side cafe, He was asking for a ride to this random shit town, which is seriously like 40 minutes away, and I'm like ... uhh ... no, I'm not going there. Then he's like "Man I just want to get home, I've been stranded here for 3 days... I'm not going to lie to you, I'm done lying, but I had too much to drink and some guy punched me in the face [this was visible] and I just want to get home." I was like, "man, you've gotta go to the hospital... it's 2 blocks that way you're close.. call 9-1-1 on the pay phone, they'll pick you up." Then he was like "No, I cant do that, they won't help me because I was shot once and didn't turn in the shooter and they wont help me since that..." At this point I was like "Man I'm sorry but I just cant help you." But I was trapped at my table. He's like "Okay man can you just give me $20 for the train?" I never have cash so I was like "sorry man I dont have cash," .. "Well there's an ATM around the corner you can go there." Finally after some convincing he left.

Also, this guy had his hands in his pants the whole time. The whole time.
 
Nope. Not doing it.

Sorry. Call me cold hearted but I'm not getting involved. I won't be rude, but I'm not doing it.

I'm sorry she has problems but I'm not going to be leeched off of by a stranger. First it's gimme a ride, then it's gimme 20 bucks for some blow. Then it's "he tried to assault me officer!".

Not falling for it.
 
JetBlackPanda said:
not worth risking it for anyone these days.

that's sad as hell but its the truth.
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Ain't nothing sad about erring on the side of caution. People talk about the "good ole days when a stranger could get a ride.." but people forget about those good ole days where when a person went missing there wasn't a national missing persons database....they just vanished.
 
I've done this four times now (once in the Denver area as a matter of fact) and I have yet to be murdered. I'm sure it's a horrible idea but I can't bear to turn my back on someone in need if I'm able to help them without inconveniencing myself for more than a few minutes. Not that I'm judging anyone who does, safety concerns are perfectly valid.

I feel like I have a pretty good radar for shifty characters...admittedly, though, you only have to be wrong once.
 
RiccochetJ said:
This post upsets me. Instead of waking up and thinking, "He was fucking cool for driving me home!"

Instead it's, "That was fucking stupid. Something really bad could have happened!"

You know what?

Here's my list. Fuck it:

  • I will keep on picking up hitch hikers
  • I will keep on offering people a ride home if I'm DD
  • I will offer a couch if they need to crash
  • I will dance with every girl in the place if they accept my invitation
  • I will dance with dudes if they ask politely (I lead though, and we do the cowboy shuffle. I can 2 step to anything.)

I'm of the opinion that people are generally good. And I go with that wile knowing there are complete scum out there.
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I got the wrong bus home once when drunk and when I realised, by asking some dude on the bus where the fuck we were, he told me to get off at his stop and he'd give me a lift home...

I did, and in the car on the way back he's asking if I had a good night and I'm like "yeah man, it was cool, I'm soooo drunk though. Really tired" - and he goes "yeah I'm pretty drunk too" -- I look at him like WTF, and he starts laughing, so I start laughing nervously, not knowing if he's for real... he seemed like a pretty cool guy, and to this day, I'm still not sure if he was drunk or not. I simply hope not.

Anyway, got home safe and sound, but felt pretty lucky that I wasn't killed, intentionally, inadvertantly - whatever.

I used to do Pizza deliveries for Dominos Pizza as a second job, and I have a pretty modern car. I'd finished for the day and was heading home, which is a really steep uphill slog - my car struggles... anyway I see this girl dragging a suitcase up there, and she's walking in her bare feet carrying a pair of shoes -- there's no traffic to hold up so I pull over and ask if she's okay, she says she broke her shoe and she's just on her way home. I'm dressed in dominos uniform and only being genuine, so I figure, I'll ask her if she needs a ride, half expecting to be treated like some potential rapist -- but she thanked me, told me I was very sweet and pointed to her house about 10 doors up the road, and says she wished someone had offered earlier down the hill!

I'd need to see someone in quite some need or discomfort to offer normally. And I guess that's sad. I have offered to give a lift to people who are getting soaked in torrential rain when they're not wearing the clothes for it too... one guy who took me up on it happened to work where I work and we were both going the same place anyways.


I'd have found the story in the OP uncomfortable though... asking for a lift to a shopping place, and then changing the story up, giving more details about her woes and asking about a church etc. When you've encountered such tales a few times, you grow hardened to them, and find it harder to tell genuine people from the tricksters. I was once assailed by this African dude with a wooden leg, who was telling me he'd been made homeless and couldn't bring his children into the country without a job - and he needed a place to stay for the night. Ended up letting him walk with me to get money out of a cash machine so he could stay in a YMCA. I don't think I was 'had' on that occasion, but still, I am a fuckin' sucker.
 
I gave a stranger a ride a couple weeks ago. Took like 10 minutes and we just talked about basketball the entire time. No problems at all.
 
I love how paranoia continues to rise despite decreasing crime rates. Must be the media.

Anyway, I don't drive, but I tend to help any person I can.
 
I did it once.

I was leaving my ex's house and some lady walking down the street asked if I could drive her to a street like a mile down the road so I said "sure!".

My ex and her mom yelled at me pretty bad and told me that it was a really bad neighborhood.

How was I supposed to know the street right next to the street I was just on is a bad neighborhood.

Maybe they should have told me that before hand so I don't make a wrong turn.

I mean, the lady looked like a crack head but I'm a sucker for giving random crack heads rides.
 
I drove a random woman to a nearby mall once (where she had intended to meet a friend but had gotten lost trying to find the place). It was late at night, and she seemed genuinely at a loss. She offered to pay me afterwards but I declined. We didn't exchange any personal information or even names.

I think it helped her (she certainly seemed grateful) and she didn't seem shady or trashy at all, but I somewhat regret doing it. I was with my girlfriend, and if it turned out to be anything bad then she would have been caught up in it.
 
Steelrain said:
Fuck no.

Maybe a woman if she's hot but generally, fuck no.
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That's the absolute wrong time to do it. Those have a high chance of scammery. A friend of my dads' got caught up in that situation once.

He saw a cute girl on the side of the road with a car that SEEMED to be broken down. He gets out to help then he gets his ass beat by two dudes and they steal all his shit. Worst part is, they got that scheme from a movie.
 
Clydefrog said:
I didn't know she was a prostitute! She wanted a lift to her truck that broke down a couple miles away. I drove her there, and on the way she kept on insisting I was tired and that I could use a rest.

She was really fat and ugly
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I had a similar experience.
 
In Brazil there are people that ask for rides, have sex with you, kill you and then take your money. After hearing all the stories and seeing some of it in action.
 
I saw a man crying in the street and he flagged me down and told me that he was mentally retarded and that he got into an argument with his friends and they left him in a strange town (where I lived out in the country). He asked me if I could lend him 20 dollars so he could take a cab to his house in the city. I told him that I could lend him 10 dollars and drive him to the subway station. He told me that he wouldn't get in the car with me because when he was a child, a strange man sexually molested him. And he's got the tears streaming down his face, and I'm like.. God, this sounds like bullshit. So I look into his eyes and I grab a hold of his hand and I tell him that I'm going to give him 20 dollars no matter if he's lying or telling the truth, but that he needs to take better care of himself, because whether he knows it or not, God is with him. He swears he'll pay me back if I give him my address, but I'm not going to do that, no.

I mean, if your con is to stand out in the street crying like a fool, something somewhere went seriously wrong. Either way it was pitiful, and I hope he understood that.

I once gave another dude a ride to the subway because he was poor and very late. I later happened to chance on a gas station where he worked, and I had like 2 bucks and be bought me some gas.

Guirah said:
In Brazil there are people that ask for rides, have sex with you, kill you and then take your money. After hearing all the stories and seeing some of it in action.
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You know...if they worked that one kink out and maybe adjusted their target demographic, they might actually have a viable business model...
 
akira28 said:
I mean, if your con is to stand out in the street crying like a fool, something somewhere went seriously wrong. Either way it was pitiful, and I hope he understood that.
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Trust me, he didn't. All he was thinking was, "Awesome, it worked again!"
 
The last time I gave a stranger who needed help a ride it ended with me losing a hundred bucks in front of the Pep Boys. So no, they no longer get help from me.
 
Link said:
Trust me, he didn't. All he was thinking was, "Awesome, it worked again!"
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This whole decency and knowing shame thing just might be a liability...

But really...to pretend to be a mentally retarded victim of child sex abuse, crying in the parking lot of a busy shopping center asking for his mommy? I mean, damn.
 
Was at a 24-hour cafe at like 3AM. Shady looking older black guy asked me for a ride to a shady spot in the hood I knew well. I really didn't want to, but my nice side was annoyingly loud.

I paused with the keys in the lock...

Me: I want to trust you. But before you get in my car, I want you to know that if you try anything, I will kill you. Do you understand?

Him: Yeah man, I'm cool.

I figured we'd both be more comfortable with that on the table up front.
 
K.Jack said:
Was at a 24-hour cafe at like 3AM. Shady looking older black guy asked me for a ride to a shady spot in the hood I knew well. I really didn't want to, but my nice side was annoyingly loud.

I paused with the keys in the lock...

Me: I want to trust you. But before you get in my car, I want you to know that if you try anything, I will kill you. Do you understand?

Him: Yeah man, I'm cool.

I figured we'd both be more comfortable with that on the table up front.
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No you didn't.
 
I lock the doors, roll down the window slightly, ask a lot of questions but I do pick up hitch hikers on occasion. Usually it's fantastic conversation.
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so you chronically do this? has anything every gone sideways with these misadventuers?

having said that, harland williams is one of the funniest people alive and the it's something about mary setup is always hilarious.
 
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