What is the kindest, most trusting and outrageous thing a total stranger has done for you?

[Pointby2]

Back when we lived in Reno, NV I bought a new Chevy S10 pickup truck. DW and I decided we'd do a nice little day trip in it up to Lake Tahoe. We got there, parked, and spent the day at the beach in South Shore. It was late in the day and we got back to the truck... the keys were locked inside. AAA came out and they couldn't open it either. A stranger approached us and said, looks like you two are in a fix? I explained the situation, and he said, OK, I'll drive you to my house nearby and you can use my car to go home, get your keys and return and get your truck.

Long story short, we did exactly that. Went to his beautiful home on the lake, took his personal car and drove to Reno and back. Then dropped off his car late that night. He didn't even ask for a driver's license from us. I still think about how generous that was today.

 

[Koolau]

Back when we lived in Reno, NV I bought a new Chevy S10 pickup truck. DW and I decided we'd do a nice little day trip in it up to Lake Tahoe. We got there, parked, and spent the day at the beach in South Shore. It was late in the day and we got back to the truck... the keys were locked inside. AAA came out and they couldn't open it either. A stranger approached us and said, looks like you two are in a fix? I explained the situation, and he said, OK, I'll drive you to my house nearby and you can use my car to go home, get your keys and return and get your truck.

Long story short, we did exactly that. Went to his beautiful home on the lake, took his personal car and drove to Reno and back. Then dropped off his car late that night. He didn't even ask for a driver's license from us. I still think about how generous that was today.

That is incredible. You must have a very honest face.

 

[savory]

I don’t have enough time or space to list all the kindness. This is one memorable event during a self contained bicycle tour.

DW falls and dislocates her shoulder. A group of UK cyclists out for an afternoon ride stop to help. Sometimes her shoulder slips out a little so while sitting on the sidewalk I tried to put it back. But this was a total separation.

The cyclists flagged down a police car. They stop but are not allowed to to take people to the hospital. They call the ambulance but after 10 minutes, one of the police officers flag down a random motorist. He agrees to make the 30 minute drive to the UK emergency hospital as it is the one that accepts emergencies. The motorist takes no money from us.

DW gets admitted immediately. Her shoulder is put back in place by 2 men and a women really tugging hard. The pain drugs definitely worked. It hurt me watching.

In our absence, the cyclists and police organize our two bikes and 4 bags which is all of our stuff besides our wallets. The police take them back to the police station for us to pick up later

In the meantime, we need to get to our hosts home. For this night our hosts are part of a global bike touring hosting group. They have only agreed to provide a place to sleep for one night and we were to arrive at their house on our bikes. When we told them our situation they made the one hour round trip to pick us up at the hospital and take us back to their house.

The next day, we went to the police station and our bikes and stuff were waiting for us. Our hosts allowed us to stay an extra night. We took our hosts out to dinner that night. And luckily, a separated shoulder was comforted with Tylenol. We were back on the bikes so grateful for the kindness of total strangers.

 

[COcheesehead]

I had a guy I met on the street give me tickets to a MLB game that he couldn’t use.
I had an inn keeper let us use their car when we were on a self supported bike trip so we could go to dinner.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Adopted me as an unknown orphan.

 

[rk911]

I had a guy I met on the street give me tickets to a MLB game that he couldn’t use.
I had an inn keeper let us use their car when we were on a self supported bike trip so we could go to dinner.

That reminded me of a similiar event. My wife was friends with a caregiver to a wheelchair-bound kid. She asked me to take them to Wrigley for a July 4th double-header and said they had tickets. Of course I agreed. So we head out on a Sunday morning. I snagged some handicapped parking close on the ballpark property, Then and only then do I learne they did NOT have tickets. By this time we are blocked in and parked for the duration of thr DH...6+hrs at least.

What to do? I walked up to the box office and plead my case...wheelchair bound kid, the "mixup" about the tickets, where we were parked. The ticket seller listened to me and told me he'd be right back. A minute later he returned asking if the kid could sit in a regular seat and I said I was pretty sure he could. He then handed me three-tickets about a dozen rows behind home plate. He said these were one of the player's tickets (didn't say who and I didn't think to ask). I don't recall if I paid for them...likely did. It all worked out really well. Cubs won both as I recall.

 

[old medic]

Part of our race group was riding down to NC from OH and one of them went down. After the Life Flight took off his brother took off on his old bike and the motor blew.... A UPS driver stopped, had a tommy lift truck, and took him and his bike about 70 miles to Charleston WV Harley since thats where they flew his brother.

 

[RunningBum]

Skiing with my son, around age 12 at the time, on a crowded day. I went first, and when I looked back he had fallen in a blind spot over a ridge and was slow to get up. An older teenager stopped above him such that he was visible and no one coming over the ridge would hit him or my son. Not that outrageous but I was super grateful this kid would stop like that as others were blowing by.

 

[erkevin]

When I was in undergrad, back in the 80s, myself and several friends traveled to another state in an RV to watch the D3 Final Four. It was held on a campus of a private college. After traveling all night, we were in search of the campus gym to find some showers. We stopped a student and inquired about public facilities. His response? No, here is the key to my dorm room. There are extra towels, shampoo, etc. Just leave the key when you are finished. Then he just walked away on his way to the library or wherever.

 

[skyking1]

I was tasked with a job that involved sawing two halves of a manufactured home apart, cutting fasteners with a sawzall. I was young, it was before I had a credit card and was out of cash. Soon I was out of sawzall blades and the trucks were scheduled to get these two halves.
Panicked, I stopped by the Krain Corner restaurant and asked to borrow money from the till. They handed me a 20, I ran to Enumclaw, got the blades, and mailed them a check.

 

[skyking1]

Fun thing my wife and I did, not the subject but the other side.
We crossed the Cascades every Christmas to do that two family shuffle. I spotted a Chrysler minivan at a remote on ramp with the hood up. It is Christmas day.
I slowed down then backed down the ramp. The lady was looking under the hood and checking things, much to her credit. She and her teenage son were on an even longer Christmas day run from one corner of the state to the other.
I said give it a crank. Then I spotted that the cam driven water pump was not turning. Looked down the oil filler and figured out she had a two piece camshaft now It was not going anywhere.
I had a car full of presents and a 105 pound rottweiler, an early Mazda GLC 2 door hatch.
I folded up the back seat, sat the dog in the back with his head forward between them, and then packed the dog in with all of our combined gear. They got a couple of kisses. Sorry.
Off we go looking for a tow company. Nobody was answering so I took them to Ellensburg to a hotel. Her BF had a truck and trailer and would retrieve them the next day.
She tried to give my wife some money. Look, nobody is giving us money broke down on Christmas day.

 

[disneysteve]

Many years ago I was on vacation in DC with my family. That day, we had parked our car at the Air and Space Museum on the mall and taken the Metro to Arlington Cemetery.

When we left the cemetery, we walked down to the Metro station only to discover that the trains stopped at 6pm. Great. We went back to the street and since the Cemetery was now closed, there wasn't a taxi to be found. This was pre-cell phone time. So we were stranded in Arlington and our car was in DC about 3 miles away. I don't recall exactly what happened but somehow we decided that if we got back across the bridge into DC, there would be transportation available, so we started walking in that direction.

A driver passing by on the bridge pulled over and asked what was happening and we explained our situation. He invited us to get into his car and he drove us back to Air and Space to get our car saving us about 2.5 miles of walking or possibly a taxi fare on the DC side. We were very grateful.

 

[Sunset]

Thinking of a stranger helping, I'm reminded of when we were at Las Vegas and drove to Bryce Canyon, left the car in the visitor center (miles from the canyon) and took the free shuttle which is great and sort of like a hop on hop off at all the trails and lookouts.
Unfortunately, we didn't realize about a timezone change, so missed the last shuttle bus and it became night.

There are no lights, so walking the road was slow, a car came along and I did wave them down, but they were packed and crowded.
Still, they shuffled stuff and made 1 spot, so I sat and DW sat on me and they drove us the miles to the locked parking lot.

 

[Gallaher]

Adopted me as an unknown orphan.

This brings tears to my eyes. I have four adopted kids. Three from foster care.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

This brings tears to my eyes. I have four adopted kids. Three from foster care.

You are my hero. If I can ever help please let me know.

 

[planuntilthefisthits]

Two things stand out:

First: On my first international trip—to Switzerland—shortly after checking in to our hotel, we headed for an appointment at the American consulate in Zurich. As soon as I got inside, I realized lost my wallet. Long story short: A passing university student found it and returned it intact to my hotel. Luckily for me, I had our hotel name prominently noted in my wallet.

Second: stayed at a B&B that also served dinner in the western part of the south island of New Zealand. The owner raised an American flag to note our arrival, and had a Thanksgiving dinner prepared for us. This took a lot of effort to source ingredients the best the proprietor could. It was a total surprise! (The other guests—not American—didn’t seem pleased that we were getting all this special treatment.

 

[JoeWras]

For me, a big tip when I shoveled snow as a teenager for a 6 unit apartment. The owner paid me, but a stranger resident stopped me one morning and gave me a tip of a sturdy desk. I still have that desk today, 47 years later.

For mom and dad. They had a rollover accident in nowhere Georgia. Dad went through the windshield and was a bloody mess (he had multiple subsequent plastic surgeries). The first car up on the scene came and the owner sat my dad down his his brand new 1963 Impala convertible with white interior. Dad bled all over that car. The owners calmed him, gave him the shirt off his back, and waited a long time while emergency services came. My dad wanted to give the man some money, but he said: "Sir, I'm just glad you are alive, nobody comes out alive on this curve." Dad talked about that until he passed away. Brand new car with white interior. Today, a collector item.

 

[Tetto]

I was in Helsinki Finland for work about three years ago, had a days downtime between country shifts and wants to go to the Finland national museum. My GPS kept sending me to the wrong building(s) for some reason, which was exasperating me (apparently my face showed it!). A gentleman in his 80s who was well spoken/dressed walked up to me and offered to help me find what I was looking for. When I told him what that was he exclaimed “Let me take you!” He walked me across the huge building campus we were on and right into the museum. He then insisted he would pay my fee to get in, which I protested, but he said he had a yearly subscription and can go as many times as he wants. So, he firmly made it clear I was going to use his pass. I thanked him profusely, and he gave a curt foot stomp and half salute saying “it’s always my pleasure to help an American in need”. What a proper gentleman and ambassador for Finland.