We live on an arterial, a major road. And just as we’d gotten all dressed to go, a woman ran out of gas, on a low tire, right at our driveway. So we got her tucked into our driveway (with the help of two guys on the street) and gave her a place to put her car, which has a lot of problems, including a tire barely inflated. She said a person up the block has a check, ergo money, and somehow this is supposed to average out to her getting gas into the car and getting it moving—
I feel sorry for her, but this is a biggish city, and she’s not a neighbor, and we feel bad about not inviting her in, and taking care of her car, and all that, but it’s just too dangerous and the story is too weird. There’s a place we know in the direction she pointed as owing her a ‘check’ (which she was coming FROM, on that one-way street, not going toward) namely, right at the corner of the second street up, a house that for several years has been the subject of nearly nightly police attention, for fights, domestic violence, car theft, and various other complaints, so that did not increase our confidence in the story.
So we called our friends and said we’re not going to make it to the party. I’m sure there’s an entire novel buried somewhere in the story of why there’s a check owed in the wrong direction on the road and why she’s driving around in cold weather with no coat in the car, but so much of this just reads ‘wrong’ I’m not anxious to leave the place.
If your radar is going off, well, better safe than sorry, although it’s a pity you’ll miss the party. You did give her a safe place to change the flat.
I think you made the right decision. That’s a VERY fishy story, it doesn’t quite add up. I’d be keeping an eye out (from indoors), listening for any odd noises ’round the yard, and keeping my phone handy just in case. It may be nothing, but as the old saying goes, better safe than sorry!
It got weirder. She came back a couple of hours later wanting us to jump the car, because she left the flashers on in our driveway. Jumping a Prius is hard enough. Theoretically jumping from a Prius is kind of the reverse, but we don’t know without reading the manual, and we were really not real sure we wanted to do that in this particular case because the expense of a Prius battery array is not something you ever want to risk. So off she went again. The car has now vanished and so has she. We’re not spooked but we missed a party I’d like to have gone to and I hate not to have been able to help somebody, but as you say, radar was going off and it wasn’t reading right.
If you were parked in someone’s drive (usually this involves permission), why would you have left the flashers going? Agreed; this sounds off.
Last time I heard a story like that it was a couple of panhandlers: their story was that they were going from location A to location B and their car broke down (at location C, not necessarily between A and B) so they needed bus money. I saw (and heard) this at least three times, each time with different locations; the last two times were about an hour apart in two different places, the first of which was shortly after seeing them get off a bus. (No, they didn’t remember people, either.)
The most likely reason is “chemically induced mental insufficiency”, but…
I once saw a tabloid headline in a grocery-store check-out line that proclaimed, “Shocking truth! 50% of Americans are below average!” 😉
Jokes aside, a century or more ago there was “enough ‘slop’ in the gears of the economy” that most of the lower half could make a living in some fashion, generally manual labor of some sort. But in the interests of “efficiency” things have been “tightened-up” so much that nowadays there’s really no similar place for them.
might be a good idea to call the cops and report the license plate and story
Maybe one of you has a stalker/fan? Besides us, I mean.
Seriously, good idea about the police. If the woman actually needs help, good. If the woman is a villain, also good. I don’t see another possibility.
Yes definitely notify the cops. And maybe pass the word at that church across the street. It sounds like she may have been casing the entire neighborhood.
Many years ago I had a similar weird person -claimed he was looking for his ‘friend’ -no name despite being asked repeatedly -just that he worked in a bar – and he kept rocking from side to side trying to look over my shoulders. The next week this road and the one next to it were hit with a rash of robberies.
This is where a tape of a ferocious dog played from the back of the house is handy.
You already wrote the title “The Wrong Direction on the Road”. It would be a good book! Now, back in real life, the suggestions here are good ones. Call the police and alert the other neighbors. Here on the opposite coast, there have been many scams in which a person or two arrives with a sad story or a flimsy sales pitch while their accomplice goes in the back door. Also, they’ve returned later to break into the cars or anything else they can. It’s been a persistent enough problem that the local sheriff’s departments are issuing warnings.
Now that Christmas gifts et. al have been opened, a lot of households have new electronic toys, cash and gift cards, jewelry, and other easily stolen valuable trinkets. It’s not irrational that thieves could be scoping out houses looking for a quick score.
Put the Guard Kitties on high alert.
Thanks for the warning. I am ever so glad for my suspicious dog. He just loves to bark ferociously at strangers!
Another thing that strikes me is this: She didn’t have a phone to call the person with the check? I know not everybody has a smartphone (I don’t) but most people these days at least have a cheap prepaid or something.
And while we’re speculating – why was she going away from where the person with the check was? Why not toward him/her? And where was she going to cash the check to obtain the money for gas? And how was she going to get to said check-cashing location without her car?
It’s sad that we have to be this suspicious, but I’ve been approached by too many panhandlers (even had one knocking on my door around midnight once!) to trust this sort of situation. Might be good to provide the local PD with a general description of the woman and her car, just in case. Perhaps also talk to a couple of neighbors and find out if anyone else had something like this happen recently.
My attitude was always “If anyone needs to contact me at all times they can pay for me to have the phone.” Yes, a 70 year-old man probably should have one in case of emergency, so I got a simple flip-fone last year. But since I’m paying for it, I leave it off unless I need to use it.