Next Time You Stop To Offer And Help Someone.....

Don't...

"During a March 2 snowstorm, the father of three—with one on the way-- saw two teen girls leave a Shell station while he was pumping gas.

“I just noticed these girls, that they had no umbrella, no coats or hood or something of that nature and I just felt like I should help,” Peterson says.

When he drove off, he saw them a short distance away on Prospect Avenue near Waverly.

“I just pulled up and said ‘How far do you have to walk?’ And one of the girls just replied, ‘We’re OK,’ and waved me on.”

Peterson thought nothing of it until…

a) ...he saw on the news that two teen girls were found a few blocks away from the Shell station, raped and murdered by a local gang.

OR…

b) ...Barrington police showed up at his home three days later and told him the girls reported the encounter and he was being charged with disorderly conduct.

Obviously, the answer is B, and it really bothers me.

First, the girls are IDIOTS! What kind of whiners call the police because some stranger offered them a ride in a snowstorm?

Second, the police are IDIOTS! The right thing to do is to call the police and let them know a couple of teens need a ride? When did the police turn into taxis? Don't they have better things to do?

...discuss

its a distrustful world. If a guy pulled up next to two young girls, one would naturally assume it ain't for moral purposes. Sad that its come to that, but it has.

As for being charged.. thats just insain. Ignorance at work'

He pleaded guilty, so I'm going to guess there is more to it then the initial story.
Your text to link here...

I'm not so sure. I find it hard to believe someone would plead guilty knowing they are innocent. Even guilty men don't plead guilty. Of course it is them vs. him, and really who would believe him over a couple of teenage girls, but this quote also makes you wonder.

There's all kinds of unfortunate things about this situation. I was expecting it to be that he did pick them up and drove them home - and then was charged with rape or something. That, and the fact that that's what I expected, are both terrible.

Also, yeah, maybe they were ok and had like a block to walk. But it reminds me of a similar situations I've been in. Once, it was a total snowstorm and there was a girl walking down a road, no jacket, etc. There's NOTHING on this road for miles so she obviously had far to go. I pulled over and asked if she wanted a ride. She was clearly uncomfortably cold, but also obviously unwilling to accept a ride. I think that's sad, too.

I'm also sad that the guy plead guilty (assuming his story was true.) Maybe it was just a "this is the cheapest/easiest way out" thing, but still... yuck.

I agree, it is definitely sad. I, like Terminus expected it to be worse, which just shows that my faith in people is pretty low.

Even worse, I keep thinking about what might happen to me in the future. I live in a pretty safe part of the world. Yeah, I know that no where is completely safe, but pretty much any time I see someone walking along in a situation like that, or with a disabled vehicle, or hitchhiking, I stop.

After reading this, I don't think I am going to change the way I live... but I'm wondering if I'll end up changing it as a result of fines, court, and two years probation. Or worse. LAME.

Just start recording the conversation from your phone so you have evidence to back up your generosity.

It doesn't pay to help people out anymore.

"...the suspect was reported to have been secretly recording the encounter with the young girl, according to police reports..."

(I even used "report" a lot, a la that other news thread... )

Just don't think that I can win.

In other news, this winter, I got my car stuck in a ditch. Plenty of people drove by, but, the first person to stop was a single girl, who just moved to my area, didn't know anyone, and looked to be about 22 or so. So that was nice. (inb4 get her number)

I hit a deer last spring, or rather a deer hit me. I could see it coming and braked, but didn't swerve, so it hit at a pretty perpendicular angle. It dented in the driver's side door and broke off the driver's side mirror, but I was able to pull over. The first people to stop were a couple of guys in a truck. They came up to my car and I rolled the window down for them but didn't get out, and once they saw that I was unhurt and that the dented-in door hadn't harmed me and that I was able to call for help from my cell phone, they wished me luck and left. Very nice.

That being said, I would never get out of the car for a stranger (police not included obviously), never accept a ride from a stranger, and I'd never pick up a hitchhiker. There are enough nice guys in this world for that to be a paranoid viewpoint, but there are enough lunatics in this world to make that viewpoint necessary.

Actually, in my hometown growing up there was a serial rapist and killer who lived a few blocks from me. He was caught when I was 13. His name was David Parker Ray, or the Toy Box Killer, if you are interested in scaring the holy mustard out of yourself today. And since his accomplice was a woman, I don't even trust girls until I know them quite well. Paranoid, but necessary. :-(

IDK...I understand that you can be putting yourself in danger, but if it's broad daylight, I'm happy to help stranded people. Can't do much about mechanics, changing tires, and all that junk, but I've been lucky enough to have good experiences with strangers the few times that I've been stranded. I believe in "paying it forward". Nothing bad has happened yet.

Pritty much if your gunna help a random person it has to be a nice and public form of help, and generally only if they come to you. People read into an act of kindness for good reason... Like I tossed some random person 1$ the other week so they would have enough to afford the bus home, would I have offered them a ride if I had a car? Hell no, theres to many messed up people out there for either me or him to take that chance. Its sad, and it sucks, but no matter how many good experiences I've had with a random person being willing to help me out it won't change the need to be cautious around randoms. One bad experience could end with you in a ditch after all : (

The moral of the story is: Don't let them get away.

People are too paranoid now. Just my thoughts though.

I do use a discriminating eye when I pull over. The latest was a girl who was T-boned by another car that just peeled out and left her shaken. She looked like she was in her teens, so I waited with her until the cops showed up. I just remember my first and only wreck, and how terrifying it was.

/shrug

EDIT: My wreck was on the way back to my parents' home for Thanksgiving. I spun out, and ended up in a ditch in the middle of nowhere on I-35 from ATX to Dallas. Very thankful for the retirees that pulled over in their RV to help pull me out of the car and call the police.

I honestly see no problem with this story, meaning I don't live in Mayberry
and those girls maybe overreacted by calling the cops but they damn sure
did the right thing by not getting in some creepy guy's car.

Yes, any grown man who is going to pull over on a couple young girls and offer a ride is creepy.

I've a friend who was wrongly accused of a crime. I won't go into the details but suffice to say the whole thing was/is a ridiculous ordeal for him and the lead officer is now being investigated for some pretty serious stuff; i.e., witness intimidation, violating the Genova Convention, etc. Pleading guilty to a lesser crime despite being totally innocent and having a very strong case is an option he and his attorneys considered seriously because of the nature of our stupid legal system. The sad truth of the matter is, the rational thing for innocent people to do is often to plead guilty to some lesser offense.

I'm thinking the broader picture here, not just this story, but... Any grown person that leaves someone stranded and in need of help is something worse than creepy.

Right? It's just like Nausi said...


And really, though, (again, outside of just this story) what's creepy about that? Offering a ride home to someone is completely separate from anything else.

"I'll give you a ride home." Not creepy.
"I'll give you a ride home, for a ***." Creepy.
"Hope you don't freeze, peace out." Something else entirely.

If the person driving has good intentions, and the person walking/stuck/whatever isn't comfortable (or doesn't want or need any help) - fine, "thanks, but I am okay" is all it takes. Could even go so far as "no thanks, I don't accept rides from strangers." EZPZ.

Read between the lines here guys, it's very likely there is more to the story than is being told, such as the later report talks about the weather being fine and the girls being dressed appropriately for the weather. If it happened as the 'good samaritan' described and there was no evidence to prove otherwise the judge would struggle to setence him to anything with a lawyer involved.


Not necessarily, but any grown man should be wise enough to know that if they do it will be interpreted as creepy regardless of whether there is intention or not.

I think I know what happened.

1. The guy offers them a lift and they say no. He drives off.

2. They start joking about how creepy he was and how he probably would have raped and murdered them if they had gotten into the car.

3. They over exaggerate the story when they get home, playing up how creepy they thought he was and how they thought they were going to get raped.

4. Their parents freak the *** out. Call the cops and tell them what vehicle he was driving and tells the cops that the girls thought they were going to be raped and murdered and this guy needs to get caught!

5. It takes 3 days but the cops finally track down his car and arrest the guy.

What do you guys think? Teenagers always exaggerate and ham up a story. I mean they are teenage GIRLS. It's pretty much what they do. They probably jumped right on Twitter/Facebook and told all their friends how they narrowly escaped being raped and tortured to death.

Guilty until proven innocent, right?

I've stopped plenty for any dude on the road who looks like he's going somewhere as long as I don't have some place I need to be. However, I have never and will never stop for a girl or group of girls(unless I know them) just because I assume they'll think I have bad intentions.

OP just reassures my position.

They were probably smoking cigs, holding 40's of smirnoff ice and dressed like hookers. How can you blame the guy...

I once bought something at Home Depot that was just a hair too big for my car. Took my stubborn *** about 20 minutes of trying before I realize it but by the time it finally sunk in some random dude came up to me. He told me he could fit it in his car and offered to help me out by following me home with it. I was pretty skeptical but after one or two rounds of him insisting that all he wanted to do was help me out, I agreed. I remember being really paranoid as I was making the short drive home, checking my mirror several times to make sure he didn't take off with whatever I bought. We got to my dorm, he unloaded it, shook my hand without incident. He didn't molest me or steal my stuff, absolutely nothing bad happened.

I think anyone who thinks helping out some kids on the side of the road is "creepy" is just paranoid. We live in the safest time in recording history and it is a long standing trend. People don't kidnap strangers, especially kids. It just doesn't happen. Kids are far more likely to be kidnapped by family members and people they already know, than by people they don't. These are simple facts that people for some reason or another just don't want to recognize. It's a sad case of denial.

Kind of what I was thinking.

It's really sad that genuine kindness is misinterpreted so much these days.