Any Cool "Good Samaritan" Stories?

I’ll post one of mine. It was an enlightening experience. I’m no saint though:

I was driving down the highway and saw an old man sitting by his truck full of all his belongings. I actually drove by and then convinced myself to turn around 3 miles later. Turns out he was on his way from Cali to West Virginia to go live with his brother because he was on disability and could not take care of himself very well. When I pulled up he was in tears, a 75 year old man just crying by his lonesome. His truck was broken down and he had $103 to his name, no phone, and everything he owned in the back of his old truck. I called a wrecker and it just so happens they took it to a shop where i knew the owner (It was in a town I had lived in years ago). I spent the day with the man, then got him a hotel room. The next day, the owner of the shop called me and said they finished his truck, it just needed a new alternator and few other small repairs. I asked him how much, and he simply said, “No charge”. I thought that was pretty sweet how the human race can work as a community to help someone out.

Back in the day my husband-to-be had an old pick-up truck. That truck was always a work in progress and for at least a year it didn’t have a starter. In order to start the thing we would have to get it rolling then he would bump it by popping the clutch. The good Samaritan part comes in because 90% of the time when someone saw us pushing that truck, they would stop what they were doing, come over, and help us push. I was always impressed by that. Also, every single time my car has broken down on the road (back when every car we bought we had to tow home), someone stopped to help me get it out of the middle of the road.

Those are small things, but people always stepped up and it always made me feel good. I try to pay it forward, even if it is small ways.

Well it all started out with ‘old’ lady, i was in best buy looking around for my next huge splurge and i overhear in the next isle her looking at mp3 players something she clearly knew nothing about, long story short in part one of my story….she was about to buy this incredibly expensive one instead of this small samsung one… no big deal until she tells me how shes worried about the tv she just bought….in my mind i KNEW what was coming up next, i asked why and turns out she needed help putting it in her car, now im not the biggest guy so i called 2 of my friends over (they live right by best buy =]) and they came to help me put this giant flatscreen in her car and than we offered to go with her to her house and set it up for her because her husband..who im sure wouldve been not alot of help…..was at work, we go to her house set up this flat screen mounted it up against the wall…she even made us lemonade!!!... at the end of the day she said thank you and walked over to me with what looked like a 50 dollar bill and i said there was no way i could accept that….i go back home to the same old thing and not a person in my family knows what i did, funny how things work out

@aaronou what happened to the old man?!!

He made it to West Virginia! He asked me how he could repay me, and I told him what supernutjob said above, just to pay it forward (good movie).

After Kitrina hit NOLA I opened up my home to a family of strangers fed them washed their clothes and gave them a place to stay for a week until they could head back home. They said they didn’t know how they could repay me because they had no money left. I told them I expected nothing from them. I asked them to be kind to others and that would be payment in full.

@gooch – That’s a good way to change the world in small ways, spread the love.

A while ago, my boyfriend and I got on the bus one morning. A woman in the pair of seats I was headed to motioned to a wallet sitting on a seat. The person beside it said it was not hers. So then the woman made my boyfriend take it to the front of the bus. Meanwhile, she could still see the owner outside the bus window, so this same woman (the original finder) made the bus driver flag her down and return the wallet. It was awesome.

She could have easily just picked it up or any sort of other unsavory thing, but she went out of her way to make SURE that person got their wallet back. It was a great way to start the day.

My children were newborn, 2 and 4. My first husband and I had just separated and sold our only car to buy me a plane ticket to go back to Oregon where my family lived. My family had no money, but my mom did have a room me and the kids could sleep in. It was just before Christmas, 1984.
I didn’t have money for Christmas gifts so I went into my mom’s attic and found my old Barbies for my daughters. My son was so young I figured he wouldn’t know the difference. I had called a charity, but it was already Christmas eve. I told them what I was doing for the girls and said that if I could just get some Barbie accessories for the girls I could make Christmas special. They said they were sorry, but it was so late that they didn’t think there was anything they could do.
That night, the kids were in bed and I had what little barbies sitting out for my girls. I was watching the fire with my mom and at about 11:00 PM the door rang. To my surprise people came in with boxes and boxes of Barbie stuff and even had gifts for my baby son. I just cried!
To this day my daughters remember this as the best Christmas ever.
I wish I could remember the name of the charity because I would be sending them money every year. In return, I always make sure that every year we do something to make Christmas special for at least one family that could use a little cheer.