Fire and Rescue/I'm a bad person
I was sitting on my couch reading a pharmacy textbook with the sliding glass doors open tonight, when I hear a kid's voice yell out "help!" At first I ignore it, because my balcony faces the back of the apartment, and people are always yelling out there: parents (for some unknown reason) let their kids run around the parking lot and there's a pool back there, always full of yelling kids (I didn't think twice about the fact it was 8:30 pm and the pool was closed.) The kid yells "help!" again, and I'm like, what the hell? The kid yells it again, so I get up and go outside to see if it's some dumb kid messing around. There's no one out there. I live on the eighth floor, below me is a strip of parking lot followed by a fence which closes off a tiny forest with a creek or something and then another fence and then what I call The Mexican Junkyard (it's full of junk and it's inhabitants are always playing happy Mexican tunes.) The voice keeps yelling, so I am starting to think something's actually wrong and maybe it's coming from the strip of forest, which unfortunately is completely covered in the middle of August by dense leaves. I don't know what to do. Should I call the cops? I decide not to call the cops and call the front desk instead, and the woman tells me she already called the cops. The kid starts yelling, "helphelphelphelp" over and over and I don't know what to do! Just then people start showing up, gather around the fence and talk to the kid until an ambulance and a huge fire truck show up.
The firemen walk up and down the fence (it's too tall to jump over) and realize there's no way to get in and, much to my delight, get out axes and start hacking at the fence!! (Hey, who doesn't like to see stuff get smashed?) Then two guys coming running out of nowhere, talk to the firemen who stop and put the axes away. The ambulance pulls away and I see it show up a minute later through the trees in The Mexican Junkyard. They get out, and it's all a blur of darkness and flashlights so I can't see them rescues the kid or what his problem was. I hope he's okay. I stayed up on the eighth floor and watched the whole thing.
I feel like a bad person for not calling someone sooner, and not calling the cops myself since it took them like over ten minutes to show up. But I guess that's probably a normal response time. Either way I feel lousy. I also realize that if I were ever attacked and called for help in that parking lot, or anywhere else for that matter, assholes like me who heard it would not call the cops. What a sucky world we live in.
The firemen walk up and down the fence (it's too tall to jump over) and realize there's no way to get in and, much to my delight, get out axes and start hacking at the fence!! (Hey, who doesn't like to see stuff get smashed?) Then two guys coming running out of nowhere, talk to the firemen who stop and put the axes away. The ambulance pulls away and I see it show up a minute later through the trees in The Mexican Junkyard. They get out, and it's all a blur of darkness and flashlights so I can't see them rescues the kid or what his problem was. I hope he's okay. I stayed up on the eighth floor and watched the whole thing.
I feel like a bad person for not calling someone sooner, and not calling the cops myself since it took them like over ten minutes to show up. But I guess that's probably a normal response time. Either way I feel lousy. I also realize that if I were ever attacked and called for help in that parking lot, or anywhere else for that matter, assholes like me who heard it would not call the cops. What a sucky world we live in.
You should have helped. If that kid could see you on the 8th floor not helping him, he would have been mad at you. That's like one day when my car ran out of gas on a major highway during rush hour. I pulled over to the shoulder and about million cars drove by me as i leaned against my car with my arms folded, not knowing what to do. This was around the time when 1 in 100 people had cell phones, so I had to walk a mile to the closest pay phone to call someone. Then I had to walk a mile back to my stranded car still on the shoulder and cars still passing by. Why didn't they stop? Did they think I was crying wolf? I was mad.
-SourKraut
Posted by
Anonymous |
1:04 pm, August 10, 2004
Im glad to see that all this started around 8:30pm and instead of calling the cops, you decided to log on and post this story by 10:30pm. No wonder you didn't call the cops. You were to busy giving us the play by play.
-SourKraut
Posted by
Anonymous |
1:06 pm, August 10, 2004
Tough crowd. Well, in all fairness I did call to make sure the cops had been called, after that there wasn't much I could do about it. People were already down there and no one could scale the fence. The whole thing started at 8:30 and was done by 9, so yea, 10:30 seems like a good time to write about it. I was just surprised at my initial reaction, that's all.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but honestly there's no way in hell I would stop to help someone on the side of the road. At least not until I got my black belt. Didn't you ever see Silence of the Lambs?? I would call Highway Patrol though and let them know you were there.
Posted by
Monica |
4:50 pm, August 10, 2004
How would you have called the Highway Patrol? 99% of the population didn't have cell phones back then. Would you have pulled over to a pay phone during rush hour and help someone you didn't know by calling the Highway Patrol? If I saw the Highway Patrol coming to help me, I wouldn't have known who it was that actually called. What good is helping people if you don't get recognized for it?
-SourKraut
Posted by
Anonymous |
4:58 pm, August 12, 2004
Hey, to the asshole who was complaining about not getting picked up:
Would you have stopped and done the same? If the answer is no, then shut-up and quit bugging my sister. There have been several times when I saw someone stranded but I didn't stop. Why? becuase even though it would've been great for me to go out of my way to help that person, there's always the chance of getting carjacked and/or worse. Is it really worth your own personal safety to help someone else?
The reason why in airplanes they tell you to put your oxygen mask on first and then help the person next to you is so you don't pass out and become unable to help the person next to you.
Posted by
Anonymous |
7:04 pm, August 12, 2004
I would stop if someone was stranded. Well, if it was a woman and she was hot. Who would carjack someone on a highway during rush hour? It's not like I was in Harlem.
-SourKraut
Posted by
Anonymous |
8:00 pm, August 12, 2004
Wait a minute, SK, you didn't say your car broke down, you said you ran out of gas! So it was all your own fault!! I'm sure you learned that lesson! Ahahahahaahha!! (I can laugh at you, I've done it too!)
Posted by
Monica |
8:42 pm, August 12, 2004
I did learn my lesson. Now I fill up my gas tank before I get to the halfway mark. It's not fun going to a gas station 4 times a week.
-SourKraut
Posted by
Anonymous |
11:00 pm, August 12, 2004
I have trouble believing some of these responses, I daily drive six (round-trip) expressway segments in the Atlanta, Georgia northern metro area, and I stop to help a stranded car nearly every day. I carry two extra gas cans, extra water, an emergency blanket, cell phone, blankets, first aid kit, and emergency fan belt. I enjoy stopping and helping (especially to Yankees who are amazed at Southern hospitality), never take money for gas or help, and it doesn't matter if they thank me. The deed is for me...not them.
Posted by
Anonymous |
7:13 am, March 02, 2005