Last night at about 10.30 a neighbour of mine had a knock on the door. His wife answered to find a middle aged woman claiming to have locked herself out and asking for a lift to Bromley (5 miles) so she could get a spare set of keys from her mother. Apparently her
immediate neighbours around the corner were indisposed and couldn't assist. Anyway being the kind hearted soul he is, my friend agreed to take her and went to get his car keys. At this point his wife told him to take one of the kids with him so that there was no chance the woman could make up some story about him having sexualy assaulted her or something similar. Rather naively, he queried the need for this but relcutantly agreed. Anyway, they arrived in Bromley about 15mins later and heasked where she wanted dropping off. At this point the woman said Croydon - about another 5-10 miles away ! At this point my friend protested, told her to get out at the nearest bus stop and went home.
All very strange eh ? I can't imagine what was behind all this but I feel my friend was very silly to have got involved and had he not taken his wife's advice he could have wound up in a Police cell or worse.
A few weeks ago I was in a similar position when aksed to take a young female friend of my wife's home from the pub. They had been to a work 'do' and she was totally out of it !
I agreed but only on condition that my wife accompanied us. When we dropped her off outside her home my wife had to help her get out of the car 'cos she could hardly walk and I was imagining all the problems that could have occured had we been on our own and I'd had to do it myself. As it was, her moronic boyfriend got very upset about it !
How sad it is that, because of the risk of false allegations, a man can't help a woman without putting himself at serious risk !
It's worse that that though 'cos a few months ago I took my young son with special needs to the park. We arrived to find just a few people and children who quickly disappeared leaving us and a single girl aged about 4 alone in the park ! I was already feeling uncomfortable when she approached me and asked to be puched on the swing next to my son. I didn't know what to do and was franticly looking for a parent but could see no-one. I decided we should go but then thought what might happen to her if I left her alone. I then thought about calling the cops but started imagining what the young girl might claim if she were to get into trouble. NIGHTMARE - I decided to sit it out and about 10 minutes later a dozy looking woman appeared with her dog and proceeded to drag the little girl off shouting at her as they went !
My God what's the world coming to when parents behave like that and ordinary decent folk are too frightened to get involved !
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Sorry about the typing but I didn't want to get 'timed out'.
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I guess in reality the situation is highly unlikely to occur whereby something along the lines you mention happen, but is is absolutely frightening that you have to give consideration to this type of situation.
When I was working in Brentwood, in Essex - very late one night driving home from a nightclub I found two girls jumping around in the middle of the road. Though wary I stopped and asked what was wrong (doors locked, window open a crack - I was used to the bad areas of Manchester from university experiences!). Turns out their Fiesta had broken down, it was also an area where no mobile phone seemed to work so they hadn't been able to call for help so they told me - I looked at it for them and it turned out to be a broken clutch cable so we left the car there and I gave them a lift several miles back to where they lived.
Knight in shining armour?
Well, very similar situation happened to a friend of mine in Bedfordshire. Driving home late one night he was flagged down by a young girl who told him she'd broken down and begged him to have a look at her car (which was visible, bonnet open). As soon as he got out of the car, two morons appeared from nowhere and relieved him of his wallet and mobile phone and the whole lot disappeared - though fortunately not in his car.
What do you do? If I was stuck in a predicament like the two girls I gave a lift to the last thing I would want to to be ignored by all and sundry thinking I was some lunatic. But on the experience of my friend and the stories you hear on the news, is it really worth being a good samaritan?
Dan J
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Should have showed them that trick where you start the engine in first and then get the revs right for clutchless changes. Did a fair few miles like that in the Polo. :)
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Reminds me of travelling on the Tube.
Busy commuter time, a middle aged woman steps into the carriage and trips, goes face down with a heavy thump.
My reflex reaction was to bend straight down and help her up, what a fool, I instinctively put my hands on her (used to picking up the kids). She yelled out "GET YOU HANDS OFF ME" very loud ... I was shocked, leaped back, and stood blushing by the door. Fellow passengers either gave me a sympathetic glance if they had seen it all, or a worried look if they missed the action but heard her yell out.
A lesson learned.
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It a sad world where these sort of things can have a legal impact. Unfortuanately everyone is looking out for themselves and you have to do the same. You hear stories of men offering seats (on a bus for instance) to women and getting a load of abuse from the woman for doing so.
My opinon is if women want equal rights they can have it and when they moan that no one let them sit down, or no one opened the door for them, simply reply 'equal rights'.
At the end of the day how far can this really go, most jokes aren't PC so we can't say them. It's going to become one boring old world.
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As a bus driver on a late night journey you often get people passed out drunk. If it is a woman on no account do we attempt to wake them up, either verbally or by physical contact, due to several stories of them accussing the driver of indecent assault!
Now most of us simply call the police when we get back to the depot and get them to wake them up. Sounds silly but in todays world where men cannot do anything right it is the safest course of action.
Im a loser baby....so why don't you kill me?!
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It's sad that one has to bear these things in mind when making a courteous gesture, but not all women are crying wolf in these situations. A girlfriend of mine had to taxi everywhere for a few weeks as she was in a full length paster cast after having broken her femur. No end of sick b*stard taxi drivers took the opportunity to try to cop a feel of the lone female who was in no position to get away. She developed a very good crutch to the shin manouver, much more effective than moaning about it! I agree that the act of taking a female 'chaperone' with you is the most pragmatic act.
BTW one should stand up and let people have a seat who are less able to stand than yourself, irrespective of whether they are male or female or whether you are. I have seen plenty of able bodied blokes sitting whist a heavily pregnant woman was left to stand on a crowded train... and what about that case in the news last week?! Telling them it's 'equal rights' is no defense against being discourteous.
Dragging this back to a motoring thread, we have far to much discourtesy to put up with anyway - tailgating, not signalling, not dipping lights, not letting people pull out from side roads when it makes no difference to the person because they are in a queue, not stopping after dinging a car door in the supermarket carpark. I think chucking more into the equation does not enrich the world at all.
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not letting people pull out from side roads when it makes no difference to the person because they are in a queue,
Side roads is one thing, but theres a school at the end of my road and I get people who wont even let me get off my driveway.
I swear, one day I'm going to by a scruffy old land-rover with the biggest ugliest set of cast iron bullbars this side of a five-bar gate bolted on the front and next time someone does that to me I'm going to park it about quarter of an inch from their drivers window.
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You want to try arresting a bevvied up young thing who refuses to cool it and go home and resists arrest.
If your job was ever on line then that was it......
DVD.
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