A little story of an anonymous helper

[kentauros]

via The Houston Press. I thought y'all would like this story :D

Are Houston Highways Patrolled by a Freelance Freeway Angel?

By John Nova Lomax Wed., Aug. 31 2011 at 3:01 PM

One day in 1997, then 25-year-old Russel Gonzalez was speeding down the Southwest Freeway near the Summit when near-disaster struck -- he ran over a piston or something and his tire blew out.

Gonzalez eased his disabled car over into the inside breakdown lane, got out and popped his trunk. As he was rooting around in the back, it was slowly dawning on him that he had a big problem. He can't recall now exactly what it was; either his spare was messed up or he didn't have a jack, but he was starting to realize he was stuck on the wrong side of about five lanes of speeding traffic with no way to get out of there.

Right about then, an old brown Honda Accord pulled in behind him. A middle-aged black guy was behind the wheel. He stopped his car and just sat there, waiting for Gonzalez to approach.

Gonzalez did so and asked him for a ride to a gas station. The guy just nodded, and Gonzalez got in. As the man eased the car back into the main lanes, he barely even looked at Gonzalez. It was then and only then that Gonzalez thought that he might have made the worst mistake of his life.

~~more at linked headline~~

It does end better than the four-paragraph limit makes it seem ;)

[Kind of Blue]

1. YAY! A good Nigerian guy story!

:rofl: Thanks, Kentauros for sharing this lovely, lovely story. The kindness of strangers never gets old but always so surprising and heartwarming. :hug: :hug: :hug:

[kentauros]

4. We've even got a Nigerian restaurant here,

but it's a scam there's only one :P

You're welcome, KoB. The Houston Press has some great writers, always finding the best stories to report and investigate. I'm glad they found this one, not to mention the huge synchronicity involved! :D

[Kind of Blue]

8. LOL...a restaurant scam!

You are funny guy :D

[Why Syzygy]

2. Shared on facebook!

:D Thanks Kent.

[kentauros]

5. You're welcome, WS!

I'm glad I could share. It's such a cool story! :D

[Celebration]

3. wow, great story n/t

[kentauros]

6. Yeah, it is

They even have some good comments, too :D

[Celebration]

7. I had an incident when I was sixteen years old or so

I was driving in a semi-deserted flood plain (a few cars around but no structures). My car stalled at a stop sign. This was decades before cell phones. A carload of scary seeming males in their early twenties with loud Hispanic music on the radio pulled up behind me and one of them approached me. Yikes! They barely spoke English. The one guy got every one of them out of their car, and they pushed my car and told me to start it while it was going, which ended up working great. After that I stopped making as many judgments about scary seeming males.

And, yeah, cars used to act that way sometimes. I don't think that technique works anymore, LOL. But that incident has stuck with me through life. Fortunately I never had a repeat of something like that.

[Kind of Blue]

9. Excellent story and learning experience! n/t

[NJCher]

10. sure it does

as long as it's a stick shift.

What a story this is! I read it twice and I also saved it. I can hardly imagine how surreal it must have been.

Interesting, the differences: hood on car had been replaced with another one, he's older now, yet still stoic and uncommunicative.


Cher