Sometimes, you just gotta do the right thing.

[Jagger]

Excellent story and I commend you for your selfless act.

I have a similar story, in a way.

One day I was running a tad late for an important sales call. This was for a large contract that, at the time, was extremely important that I close the deal.

Anyway, I'm driving along when I see an old lady crossing the street, literally hurdling a large snowbank. She takes a really nasty tumble and is laying flat out in the middle of the road! To my absolute astonishment a few cars actually drive by her missing her by less than a foot! I couldn't believe it. Of course I stopped to help, as any decent human being would do. The lady was in some pain so I offered to drive her either to the hospital or to her residence. She lived in an old folks home about 10 minutes or so away. We got there and I managed to get her inside and looked after.

Needless to say, I was very late for the important sales call. My client was not happy at all. P.O.ed to be frank. Thankfully, he was not a prick like Frank's dude and came around pretty darn quickly once I told him the story. He actually ended up shaking my hand and thanking me for rescuing the lady while stating that we need more people doing honourable acts like that! Wow. I was blown away. We ended up getting the contract and I went back to the old folks home a day or two later and the lady was recovering nicely from her accident.

Sometimes you can do the right thing AND come out ahead anyway.

Nice story Frank. Well done.

[Reaper]

Good on you, Frank! You have inspired me to "pay it forward" this week. However, I generally get people refusing my help even when they clearly need it because they are intimidated by my size so I'll just have to go the vigilante justice route and beat up some poor guy trying to get into his house after forgetting his keys or something like that...

[jar_e]

I tip my hat to you Frank. I guess sometimes a good act is more rewarding than a good paycheck. Definitely a great story to read and brighten my day, I'm sure it brightened the vet's day even more.

[Bobblehead]

Excellent thread. 5 Starts!

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by Reaper

Good on you, Frank! You have inspired me to "pay it forward" this week. However, I generally get people refusing my help even when they clearly need it because they are intimidated by my size so I'll just have to go the vigilante justice route and beat up some poor guy trying to get into his house after forgetting his keys or something like that...

I actually get that a lot as well Reaper. Surprising that so many people are terrified of a big dude.

[SpecialK12]

Great thread.

I love stories like this. Unfortunately, like this one they don't always have the best ending.

I was going to work one day and before hand was up at Dalhousie Roger's video. I came out and was heading over to the safeway. Right next to the Roger's is a liqour store. As I was walking past a homeless guy stopped me and asked if I could spare any change as he was hungry. I said "sorry, all I have is interac, if you wait 5 minutes I'll talk to you once I come out of Safeway." I wasn't making much at the time, but obviously more than this guy and felt good I was going to buy him a sandwich (instead of giving him money outside the liqour store).
So I go in, get what I need and get the guy a pre-made safeway sandwich. I come out with a big smile, greet the guy and hand him the sandwich. He takes it, looks at me with a disgusted look and says "does this have ham on it? I don't like ham". I should note that this guy was white as white can be (so unless he converted at some point, I don't think he was muslim). I looked at him shocked for a minute and said "are you serious?". He said "could I just have some money instead?" I grabbed the sandwich from his hands, walk right back into the safeway to customer service - told her the story and she gave me my money back for the sandwich.
I then proceeded to walk out of the safeway right past the guy shaking my head at him. He looked completely oblivious as to why I was upset.

[Sample00]

yer a good man, Frank
well done!

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by fleury

...you must pack a large set of gonads my friend . Too risky for me.

Ha ha!

[someguy51]

Good stuff! Given that, its probably not the type of place one would want to work at anyways.

Although, I wonder if he would have reacted differently if you called before you were late to let him know what you were doing.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by someguy51

Good stuff! Given that, its probably not the type of place one would want to work at anyways.

Although, I wonder if he would have reacted differently if you called before you were late to let him know what you were doing.

I really doubt it. You really had to see this guy. So hard to describe the aura of snottiness surrounding him. He just begged to be punched in the lips.

[Stranger]

Whenever anyone does something noble like that it always reminds me of a line from the Billy Joe Shaver song "That's why the Man in Black sings the blues".

"There's so precious few among us walking in the saviors shoes..."

Good job Frank. Nothing like helping someone in need and sticking it to the man in the same hour.

PS Good song by a good old outlaw country singer.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

I met a friend of mine through a good deed. People often say my story is super cute, but a manly man such as myself refuse to acknowledge that.

Some time in the summer, I was driving home in a rainstorm on deerfoot. As I was driving, i noticed off a distance away a car was flashing its hazards and what look like an asian girl struggling to haul her spare out of her trunk. She wasn't a tall girl (about 4'11" maybe 5'1" at the most) and she was soaking wet. I slowed down, pulled over, and stepped out of the car. To my surprise, she dropped her tire and ran into her car and locked the door lol. I figured she was probably just trying to be safe, so I walked up to the driver side and asked if she was ok, and if she needed any help. First thing I noticed was how super cute this girl was. She rolled her window down till there was a little crack (about 1/4 inch) and said she was fine and that she didn't need any help. Even thinking about it now makes me laugh. Noticing that she was a bit scared, I offered again to help and assured her I only had good intentions. I gave her my license through the window crack and told her to call someone, tell them who she's with and where she is currently at. This helped put her at ease a little.

I went to work and changed her tire. Once i was done, I told her she can come out and inspect it once I have driven away. To my surprise, she opened the car door, gave me my license back, and thanked me for helping her. I got in the car and drove off, keeping an eye on the rear view to make sure that she was able to drive off as well.

So a few weeks later I get a phone call. She somehow managed to track me down. I'm guessing she copied my address from my license and did a reverse number lookup. We went out for a thank you supper and still remain friends today.

[Igottago]

Is it just me, or is does there seem to be very few people who would actually do things like this? Our society seems to place more value on being self-serving, and seems to be getting worse all the time. I like hearing good stories like this.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by fleury

I've given homeless people who said they needed money badly (they didn't appear to be homeless), then while I'm watching them, move on right over to the LCBO. That actually happened once. Another time a few years back I park my call in Wal-Mart and this lady with a complete fur coat comes rushing up to my car as I'm about to park (almost hitting her), and so I park and open my door to yell what the fack she is doing and she starts crying...I ask her what's wrong, she says her car ran out of gas and she has no money, credit cards or anything like that. She asks me if I can spare $2, so I say no sweat...look into my wallet, and all I have is a $5 bill. I'm 18 at the time making minimum wage, but this lady needed help, so I give it to her. I found it odd though (b/c of the fur coat), so I decided to follow her...she goes to Wal-Mart and straight to the cosmetics section. I was steamed, but didn't do anything...just a bit disappointed. Another story...lost wallet at the ACC while I was working there...gave it to a coworker who was going on break to turn it in, he steals it, I come in next day, and next thing I know is cops are questioning me. I explain to them what I did, the bum coworker says I took half the money, and the ACC fires me (even though the police said they thought I was telling the truth). So that's some stuff where I just did the right thing, but it never helped. Good to see that you did the right thing (especially with the old guy, society just seems to ignore old people).

hahaha man, I have YET to see anything positive posted by you. Everything you talk about is negative. Come on now, you should be honest with us. You've never tried to help someone and it worked out?

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Igottago

Is it just me, or is does there seem to be very few people who would actually do things like this? Our society seems to place more value on being self-serving, and seems to be getting worse all the time. I like hearing good stories like this.

1. Sometimes it's not obvious when a person needs help or when they don't.

2. Sometimes it's unsafe to approach strangers in particular circumstances.

3. Stories like this pop up every now and then. At least I hear about them.

4. Do you believe that as time progresses humans just naturally become less moral? Less willing to help? Just because? Do you believe it is society's influence? Do you think society is progressively getting worse?

In my opinion, it is the city's growth. If you go to a small town, stuff like this is more common. Why? Because everybody knows each other.

[MarchHare]

Awesome story, Frank! Add me to the chorus of people commending you for doing the right thing.

I am forced to wonder, though, didn't you have a phone on you (or could have used the one at the gas station)? Surely if you had called the company, told them your story over the phone, and apologized in advance for being late, you might have been able to do the good deed and still get the interview.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Igottago

Is it just me, or is does there seem to be very few people who would actually do things like this? Our society seems to place more value on being self-serving, and seems to be getting worse all the time. I like hearing good stories like this.

There are definitely good people out there. It's just hard to see them sometimes. I remember a few years back taking the bus home quite a bit. This one lady would get on the bus, obviously very pregnant. No one would give up a seat for her. It got to be pretty funny, I'd always stand up and offer mine. "You again?" she'd say and would laugh (and always a very pleasant thank you). And why don't women ever offer their seats to woman who are pregnant?

I definitely have to get back into the habit of doing nice things for people. I can't remember the last time I did anything noteworthy.

[PowerPlayoffs06]

Some great stories in this thread. Kudos to all the Better Men we have here.

I have a few good stories too, but for every story I have about doing the right thing and it having a positive result, I have 10 more about doing the right thing and being scammed for it. More and more as the city grows and more people arrive, the ignorance factor of society seems to rise.

Like Mr.Coffee says, in a small town everybody knows eachother, so good things go around because people have reputations and can't hide in the crowd whereas in the big city, you're more than likely never going to see the person you've wronged agian, so who cares, right? If people know who you are, or you believe that you can somehow be held accountable, you're less inclined to be a jerk.

That's the problem with anonymity; no fear of repercussion for your actions or inactions. Just look at the internet.

A *perfect* example of this happened to me just the other day. I was driving home from class and in my rearview I see some guy in a red pick-up weaving in and out of traffic, cutting people off and just driving like an ass. As he's driving by me, I notice he has a For Sale sign in his back window with his cell number on it so I make a mental note of it and watch him continue to weave and cut across multiple lanes of traffic. I decide to call him up.

"Hello?"
"Hi, you have the red Chevy pick-up for sale?"
"Yup."
"Great. Stop driving like such an *******. The last thing anybody needs is you causing an accident."

Then I hung up on him and watched with smug amusement as the rest of the way down Glenmore, he drove normally knowing that he could be recognized and held accountable for behaving like a dick.

I don't entirely blame the growth of the city for peoples attitudes, because mainly it's up to people to choose whether they want to be a jerk or not, but it doesn't help.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Awesome story, Frank! Add me to the chorus of people commending you for doing the right thing.

I am forced to wonder, though, didn't you have a phone on you (or could have used the one at the gas station)? Surely if you had called the company, told them your story over the phone, and apologized in advance for being late, you might have been able to do the good deed and still get the interview.

I am the only person on this earth who does not have a cell phone. I loathe them. I guess I could have called, but it didn't occur to me. Plus, I didn't have his phone number handy or anything. Ah well, its all pointless speculation because i couldn't have worked for such an ass-clown anyhow. The feeling on the drive home was worth every potentially lost penny!

[simmer2]

I have a similar story that just goes to show what a simple act of kindness can do.

I was in Krakow, Poland and my buddy and I decided to go to Auschwitz, the concentration camp from WWII. It was a fairly long day with lots information and lots of emotion. People from all over the world were there to learn about the atrocities.

Anyways, it's about 4:30pm and my buddy had left to go back to the hostel early. I'm walking back towards the entrance along the railroad tracks (where they brought the trainloads of prisoners in) and see this elderly lady up ahead of me who was struggling with a heavy purse. She was probably 4'11, and the weight of her purse made her look like a human version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I caught up to her and asked her if I could carry her purse. She was more than willing to give it to me, and so we started chatting. She asked me about where I was from, why I would come to a horrible place like Auschwitz. I then asked her why she was there, and she said "I was a prisoner here 60 years ago."

I wish I could have seen the look on my face. This elderly lady, 76 years old, was in the camp when she was 16. We started chatting, and for the next 1.5 hours, she gave me a tour of the camp. She shared stories, talked about the conditions, showed me where the children stayed, how they bribed the guards, snuck more food and clothing in, everything. It was an unbelievable experience.

To this day, I can envision nearly every single second of that 1.5 hours. All because I offered to carry a purse.