Poll: Ever pick up a hitchhiker?

[2012 Wont Happen]

Yeah. I'll always pick up strangers daytime or within my home city. If I have a gun in the car with me I'll pick up a hitchhiker anywhere even in the middle of the night, but it's pretty rare for me to be armed when I'm driving, pretty much only if I'm on my way to or from shooting.

Oh yeah, I'll also always pick up people with kids even if I'm not armed, middle of nowhere, at night. I may be a paranoid gun nut, but I'm not going to make trusting a family in need enough to help them contingent on me being armed.

 

[Guffe]

Never picked anyone up, well a friend was ones beside the road and put his thumb into the air when he saw me, I pulled over, he jumped in, and I drove forward. Wasn't a planned meeting or anything, just happened

But hitchhiker as in a random stranger, I've never picked up. I might depending on the situation and were I am going.

 

[Chris Moses]

It was late at night and I was out driving with my friend. We see this girl waving us down. My friend said "pull over". I reluctantly agreed. She wanted to go to San Antonio, something about getting away from her ex-boyfriend. I didn't feel like driving 2.5 hours or burning that much gas (I was in a pickup truck). So, while we talked things out I drove out of the city (small city). She seemed desperate to get out of the city but had nothing to offer, so somehow we decided to flash our headlights to get a semi to pull over to take her closer/the rest of the way, and it worked! To this day I have no idea what happened to her. I hope the semi driver was as honorable of a man as I.

The crazy shit that can happen when it's late and your out driving around with your friend...

 

[Smooth Operator]

I used to do it all the time, I don't live in a hostile environment like the US so safety is really the smallest concern of them all. But then I found out that in the case of a car accident any of your passengers can take you to court for insane insurance claims, and it is apparently very very common... so I'm sorry to anyone stranded but fuck that shit.

Otherwise I would have no problems taking people with me, you help people out, get someone new to chat, good times.

 

[Albino Boo]

I only pick up hitchhikers when I have some fava beans and Chianti to hand.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I picked up a hitch-hiker about 3 years ago now, I had just come from delivering a pizza and it was very late at night and there was this man on the side of the road with his thumb out and where he was was so far out that I figured no one would be picking him up and he just wanted a drive into town (so where I was heading back to) I was more than happy to help

 

[happyninja42]

I've done it twice. Once was this random guy that came up to me in the night. Looking back, I think he was probably trying to get away from somebody, because he kept looking over his shoulder, but by that point he was in my car. He was fine as far as how he behaved to me, he was just very jittery and nervous. I took him to his destination not too far away and dropped him off.

The other time, was the random, elderly woman who came up to me in a parking lot, and asked for a ride. I agreed, and she offered to repay me by giving me a blowjob. I politely declined, because while I have nothing against older women, and in fact find them very attractive, this lady was not in any way, appealing. She actually got offended that I didn't want a blowjob from her, and gave me attitude for the rest of the ride. I took her to a house, and I'm pretty sure it was a drug dealer, given where we were, and by the fact that the place was being staked out by a police car. The cop started following me after I dropped her off, probably to run my plates, since I was a new person at that address.

 

[Frezzato]

I've helped perhaps 20 stranded motorists over the years. Most of the time I was just giving someone a jump, changing a tire, or pushing their car out of the road.

I've given at least 4 people a ride though, two of which were some guys dressed like mountaineers who were from Mexico City. Another time it was a kid stranded on I-75, which crosses my state. I was on my way across anyway so I gave him a ride while his three friends were left behind with their car. It was a good hundred miles and the kid told me he just got out of jail. I did some quick mental arithmetic and calculated that at my speed of 75 MPH, there was little chance he would pull something. Otherwise I would set a new personal best for rolling a car while approaching 80.

Just the other day I helped another kid change a tire. It had been installed with an air wrench so it took half an hour just to remove the lug nuts. He was young, dressed very neatly, and oh right he was stranded right outside my work at 5 AM on a poorly lit, lonely stretch of road in a sparsely populated warehouse district. He was eerily polite, like super creepy; I think I finally got a glimpse of how people must view me.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I've only seen a handful of hitchhikers and have never picked one up. I might be willing to depending on my schedule, the weather, and how threatening the person looks.

 

[VanQ]

Nah, never. I've not seen many in my life but I'm not willing to risk my safety and my car over it. A possible good deed isn't worth the risks of having a knife pulled on me and having my car stolen.

 

[Uncle Comrade]

Only once, I was driving home from my dads and saw a girl standing with her thumb up outside a train station. I would've just driven by, but the traffic lights went red, and she walked over when I stopped. Turned out she and her two friends were on their way to a festival, and needed a ride into the next town to catch another train. Since I was passing through the town anyway, I said they could hop in.

They were quite friendly people (it was clear they'd had a few drinks already and were a bit merry), quite chatty, complimented my music. They even asked me if I wanted to come to the festival with them, to which I laughed and said unfortunately I had get home as I had work the next day.

Other than that, I've never given someone a ride unless it was arranged beforehand. Hitchhikers don't seem to be as common in this part of England as they are elsewhere.

 

[tippy2k2]

only if they have a towel self evident upon them...

I appreciate everyone's answers (and some neat stories!) but you have won the thread. Congratulations!

There's no prize but you have the honor of knowing you won

[small]I also wonder how many people understand that reference. You'd figure a place like The Escapist would have a lot of people who have knowledge of that particular series...[/small]