My wife and I were driving home late one night after a small gathering when our car suddenly died on a long, empty stretch of road. It was past 2 AM. No houses. No lights. No phones back then — just silence that grew heavier with every minute.
After nearly an hour, headlights appeared behind us. A young man pulled over and asked if we needed help. He said he was a college student heading back into town. Without hesitation, he drove us to the nearest service station. We tried to pay him, but he smiled and said, “I’m just glad I was here at the right time.”
Years passed, and one afternoon my wife called me, her voice trembling.
“Turn on the news,” she said.
The report showed a man involved in multiple roadside robberies across several towns. What stunned us wasn’t the crimes — it was the resemblance. The description, his age, even the car model… everything matched the young man who had helped us that night.
According to the report, he had a long troubled history. Authorities said he often approached stranded drivers pretending to help, using the moment to take advantage of them. He wasn’t described as violent — just someone who’d made one bad choice after another.
To this day, we don’t know why he treated us differently. Maybe the timing wasn’t right. Maybe he felt something human in that moment. Maybe helping us was the one good thing he did in a long chain of mistakes.
But it reminded us of one truth:
Sometimes a stranger’s kindness — or mercy — changes everything.
