Good Samaritan Keystone Kop Version

Saturday morning before my granddaughter Celine’s birthday party, my son Andrew drove to their church to ready the vehicle for their bus ministry. He knew he needed to check the fuel and oil. As ha checked, he found that someone had broken the oil dipstick. He started the van and it RUMBLED into life. He thought perhaps the muffler developed a hole or an exhaust pipe had separated. Not so. He looked underneath and someone had stolen the catalytic converters. He texted the Pastor and left a message with the Brownsville police. The Pastor returned his call, but the police waited until Tuesday.

While he was out, he decided to put gas in his own vehicle. Driving out of Brownsville he noticed a young man chipping away at an icy pile of snow that stranded his automobile. Two of the car’s wheels were suspended in the air without providing any traction at all. Being the good-hearted person that Andrew is, he stopped to see if he could help. Andrew asked if the woman passenger could drive. When the guy said yes, they decided to push it back until the wheels could touch. She could put the car in reverse to help. Good plan. Yes, until… the woman put it into reverse. She swung the rear-end of the car out into traffic onto Route 40. Other cars began to brake, swerve, and weave to avoid hitting her. Then she turned the wheel and began driving on Route 40 in reverse, aimed at a gas station. Andrew was in a panic thinking he might be the cause of a fire and explosion that destroyed Brownsville. He watched as her two tires bumped up onto the curb before resuming her reverse journey the wrong way on Route 40.

Now she was backing the car down the exit ramp from Brownsville. Somehow she’d turned the steering wheel again and ending on the opposite ramp leading into Brownsville. Finally she managed to gain control long enough to stop in the grassy median strip. All the while, the man was dashing madly after his vehicle. Andrew’s thoughts and emotions changed quickly as the different possibility of disaster sped from one to another.

The man was able to climb into his car and drive away. As they passed by Andrew, the passenger’s window was down. The woman’s face was as white as a ghost, staring straight ahead and the man didn’t acknowledge Andrew’s good deed.