Helping Random Strangers

[Bambi]

Ok, so the girl in question wasn't totally random, but I still don't know her

2am I was woken by a tapping noise I'm like...wtf, that better not be my door (it wasn't for the record) tap tap tap bang bang BANG....I'm thinking wtf its like almost 2am

So I have a nosy, girl over the road cant get into her house....bit more banging carries on...til she gives up and starts crying on her door step

So up I get up (bear in mind i have a cunting job assessment in an hour ) throw some pj's on, stumble out and try to get her to come over to mine where at least its safer than sitting on her doorstep, about 10 minutes of crying and telling her she can use my phone to ring her clearly IDIOTIC bf she finally decides Im speaking sense , the shit turns up. So I toodle back off to bed

That's my good deed for the year Im telling you. Couldn't leave her out there on her own round here though

So do you help randomers in need or would you just leave them to it?

 

[Kandy-Sugar]

Honestly it depends on the situation for me.

If there's plenty of people around I usually think, 'Someone else can help them'.

I've had one of Steve's friends ring us once to ask if we could give this girl (we didn't know her and he'd only really just met her) a ride home because she had no money for the train or some crap, and he didn't have a car or license.

So we picked them both up and she was silent for the entire trip until she said, "This is it here." and jumped out without even saying thanks. <_< It was like an hour drive into the city too!!!

Little scabby slut she was.

I had actually argued with Steve beforehand about helping some random we didn't know, and apparently I was a bitch for being so mean and not wanting to help etc.

Turns out I was right in the end! We got no thanks! Only got some petrol money from the guy who originally rang us!

To be honest I've helped out more random animals in my time than people.

 

[Mitsuki]

Like Kandy, it depends on the situation as well. Like for instance, a few years ago my husband and I gave $20 to this old lady who was digging at a dumpster behind a McDonalds. We drove up to her, rolled down my window and gave her $20 dollars. She said 'thanks' and smiled at me. Felt really bad for her since she was kinda filthy...

Now, there was also a case where we also ran into a woman at a Mervyn's parking lot walking around with her three kids, asking people for money. Apparently the dad refused to pay child support. Unfortunately we didn't have cash with us. We learned that they haven't eaten anything all day, so we told them to follow us. We did not let them get in our car, because we pretty much have this rule that no one goes inside our car unless we know them, period.

Anyway, they followed us to a nearby Jack in the Box and they ordered, we paid, they said 'thanks' and then we left. Simple as that. So yeah, in a way we did help some strangers but there is also a limit to how much we can help people. I wish we could have helped them out more, but again, the world is full of people suffering and there is just one 'me', therefore I do not really see it as my obligation to help someone, but if given the opportunity, I will, while making sure that I am careful with my actions.

 

[Sir Kenneth]

I don't go out of my way to help others, but I do the usual small things like holding doors for people, giving old ladies my seat on the bus, giving homeless people a bit of change or a couple of cigarettes, and stuff like that.

 

[Dolores Haze]

Mits, Kelly, you're both going to Heaven Or wherever you want to go.
I don't, not really. I mean if I saw that girl I'd ask Mum if we could go help her, and it's not like I don't want to help. But I haven't really seen anyone who needs help, except old people crossing the road - and I'm scared they won't trust me to not throw them in front of a car >.>

But I guess at 13 I can't help out much anyway

 

[SaShman]

I try to help people out when I can. Like when I see someone passed out/asleep on the streets after drinking too much a friday/saturday night. I wake them up, walk them to a taxi or whatever..

I also give people change when they ask, however I often get screwed by this. Just tonight some guy asked me for $5 so he could get a taxi home, so I gave him the money and walked off. A few hours later I saw the same guy holding a beer. He actually looked kinda nervous when he saw me, I couldn't help but chuckle...fuckwit.

 

[Ironman]

on fun friday night, before i turned 18, i was up at like 3 am, chilling wit a mate at mine watchin a DVD [American pie: the wedding] and out of knowhere my door gets knocked on. so i get up thinking "who da fukk is dat?" getting to my front door, i unlocked it and answered.

Standing infront of me was a drunk young lady [looked about 20-23] and she asks if she could borrow my phone so i said sure, handed her my mobile and she rang a taxii. living in quite a rough nabourhood i waited outside my house for the cab [the fact she was hot had nothing to do with my generosity]

and when the taxi showed up i bode her goodnight, she thanked me, and left. I felt better for being a gentlmen [kind of] and then went back into my house.

 

[Sabriel]

I try to if I can like FMA, but like B at such a low age, there isn't much you can do. Sure I can give basic aid like CPR, if my parents don't allow me to e.g. donate money to a stranger, then no. And I can't see the reason why they don't. I genuinely want to make the world better place for poeple to live in, so that's why me and everybody else who's like me help, I won't desert anyone as long as I can do what they ask me to, but bad people, like terorrists, no. I don't want to get killed, ffs. I'm not that...into help.

 

[Shu]

Nice Post, although I don't have much to add but stories myself. As most have said, it is purely situational. Random strangers needing help have been pretty sparse to me, but I try to keep an open mind to those that truly need it and aren't abusing the system. Usually it is my friends who I know who need help more than anything.. but I'll throw down.

When I was I would say 20 or so I was playing my crack (world of warcraft) when I ventured on a ventrillo sever, which voice communications in an rpg was very new too me take in mind, but anyways. I had quite a few real life friends playing the game at the time and we often times used this vent server, but when I got on, on this one particular night I only saw one person on.. and naturally I sort of just joined his channel. (name was Doomy). I asked him wassup and such, and immediately I heard crying. (he was 17 or so we got further aquainted) Apparently his close friend had ended his life from gun shot 2 hours prior and he had no one to relate to about the subject. Apparently rather than venting or whatever to a friend/parent - I was just "randomly" there. So I told him to just tell me the details and such and keep on going. After a good 10 minutes of him getting through his piece while bawling his eyes out, I told him a little about my life and such. I told him I understood the situation all too well, been down that road twice in fact. After what seemed 2 hours of commercing, he felt a little better, but of course his friend was still gone from his life, so I knew it wasn't something he could wake up and feel fine about the next day. He friendlisted me I believe a month later, and just told me thanks. Take in mind I had never met this person before this, so it was just.. random.

Other than that, opportunity really never presents itself other than holding doors open and giving people courtesy. I mean people I've known throughout my life I've been there for even if I only knew them for a few months, but this isn't random.. so I don't have anymore stories to tell. All the random people I usually help out, I think its no big deal in the end, so I tend to not remember much about it. Aside from giving change to the homeless.. off the top of my head.. that's all I got for now.

 

[John Marston]

I try not to because i've had bad experiences with con artists in the past. But i can pick them out now from the ones that do need help so i help those people by giving them what i have on me. I really need to do more good deeds though, i know i haven't done enough.

 

[Crash Lecavlier]

I help out when I can. Not necessarily a "Johnny Do-Gooder" but i try my best to help out if someone may need it.

 

[West]

I don't consider myself to be a mean person really (crotchety is one thing, mean is another...), but I rarely go above and beyond my "call of duty", if you will. But I'd like to think I'd help someone if they were really in a pickle. Every time I think of stories like these and how easily people become bystanders, it reminds me of stuff like the whole Kitty Genovese thing, and that disgusts me.

But if I'm feeling particularly generous, I'm capable of helping strangers. Last winter, for instance, I was out snowblowing my sidewalk at night, and some woman comes over to me and asks if I can help her get her car unstuck. She hit a snowbank on the corner of my block, she was clearly drunk (she reeked of alcohol), but her house was, like, two houses away so I figured there'd be little harm in assisting her. In her intoxicated state, she was absolutely no help in shoveling out her car, so I pretty much did it myself over the course of about an hour. She offered to pay me for my help, but I refused to accept anything because at that point I just wanted to go home and get her out of my hair. She then told me that if I ever needed to use their snowblower, I could go over and use it anytime--not sure why. But she drove home and I've never seen her since then.

On the other hand, I've had people come into my workplace, give me some story and ask me for money (which they often claim they will repay). Whenever people do that, I always tell them I don't have any money on me, regardless of whether or not I actually do. It annoys me that people can walk into my store, corner me at the register, try to make me feel guilty about something, and then ask me to give them money. I mean, I've given money to people on the streets before, but it's entirely different.

 

[Beyer]

I help out whenever I can but I am not very good at noticing when that is. One time I saved a run away trolley for a lady which had her new expensive TV in it (she was old) and I am proud of that. Every now and then I do good deeds to strangers but I would rarely say no.
I can just never see the opportunity before it is too late.

 

[GBJoker]

I never help any one. I can't trust any one enough to believe that they won't stab me in the back later or do something stupid and destroy all I did for them in the first place.

I fully comprehend poverty and the fact that people wouldn't have any luck at all if they didn't have bad luck, but it's my belief that you should still be able to take care of yourself. I don't help homeless people because odds are, they will use whatever money they acquire on drugs, beer, lottery tickets, or hell, even a big screen tv that they only later realize they need electricity for, long before they realize they need food. It's not a view of the world that's full of puppies, fairies, and rainbows, it's just the real world.

Moving up a few degrees, no, I won't help a random girl in a bar. There's been far too many instances where I helped a random female, only to as little as five minutes later been called a rapist or a pedophile. For me, women are on their own. They don't have to get plastered drunk, hell they don't have to even leave their house and go to the bar. All responsibility is on them.

I once saw a homeless dude walking behind one of the stores I worked at while we were all on break and having a cigarette. I went up to him and asked if he needed directions or money (I was the only one, all the other rat bastards were scared of getting diseases), and he mumbles a few things. I ask him if he requires an ambulance or something, and all of a sudden, he pulls out a metal pipe and starts swinging wildly. I dodge a few times, and he eventually hit the ground pretty hard (Slam a hollow metal pipe against concrete, you'll be stunned for a second too), and I had no choice but to kick the back of his knees and twist his arm until he let go of the pipe.

He may of been crazy, maybe not. It doesn't matter; he put my life in danger and suffered the consequences.

I know people will read this and think I'm clearly the devil in human form, and I'm okay with that. My past experience has shaped me into what I am, and nothing will change that now.

 

[Lirael]

I'd love to help strangers more, but I always fear that they're going to steal from me or attack me. It's a bit irrational, I know...

If I have money in my pocket that I can easily take out, I will sometimes give some to a man or woman selling the Big Issue, but usually it's in my purse and I don't like taking this out. :/ For some reason, I feel that people who are trying to sell the magazine are more likely to use the money on food rather than alcohol or drugs...

The best 'helping a stranger' situation I can think of took place when I found a £10 outside someone's gate. I was on my way home from the local co-op and noticed it lying amongst the dry grass... I stood there for a while, wondering whether it would be safe to knock on someone's door. If the money wasn't there's they could have been offended... or they could have pretended it was (but I decided that their honesty didnt matter). Then there's the question of whether or not the person behind the door is a creep or not. :/ But I swallowed my fear, walked up to the door and knocked.

A young mother came out. She looked stressed and worried and wondered why I was there.

'Hi,' I said. 'I know this is highly unusual, but I just found this outside of your gate and was wondering whether it's yours.'

She lit up, hugged me and thanked me. 'I literally just got that from the shop. Thank you so much!'

I went home feeling very connected to society. I thought about the importance and beauty of positive help and positive thanks.

 

[Tyler Breeze]

Honestly, I've never really had an opportunity to help some random stranger. Then again, around here, if you even go near somebody they'll think you're trying to kidnap them or something like that. If I do see an opportunity to help someone, I'm usually in the car with Dad zooming through the street. I do want to help random people, because I feel it might make me like humans again. After that guy gave me the last toy at TRU right before he paid for it, I knew I had to help out somebody during my life time. This happened in 2005. Because of that one nice thing he did for me, I feel like I have to give it back now to somebody else.

 

[Ed Elric]

Louis C.K- First Class bit

What he explains in his story is exactly how I feel about helping random strangers.

Although he's talking about a solider, it's still a stranger so it's the same concept.

I've never helped anyone, but the idea of doing it is still heartwarming.