No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I was working a demanding night shift and had recently left an abusive relationship. After work, I stopped at a gas station to refuel. A woman about my age approached, looking frightened. She said she had argued with her boyfriend and had walked to the station to call a friend. She pointed toward a large car parked near the dumpsters and said the men inside had followed, harassed, and threatened her.

She appeared sober and genuinely distressed, so I finished fueling and offered to drive her home. As soon as we left, she kept turning around to watch for the other car. When I asked her to fasten her seat belt, she ignored me. A short distance later she began looking through my car and asking where my purse and money were. I realized that the situation might be a setup rather than a rescue.

Then she shouted that the men were behind us. The large car appeared in the rearview mirror. She started laughing and bouncing in the passenger seat, saying that the men were going to hurt me. She opened the glove compartment and searched the back seat while telling me what they planned to do.

There was an intersection ahead, the light had just turned yellow, and she still was not wearing a seat belt. I also kept a spare box cutter for work in the driver’s side door. I accelerated through the intersection, and the other car was delayed by the cross traffic.

I slammed on the brakes. Because she was unrestrained, she struck the dashboard and windshield before rebounding into the seat. I held the box cutter near her and screamed at her to get out of my car. She grabbed the handle and opened the passenger door. I pushed her out, then accelerated away with the door still open.

I made several turns, worried that the other car might catch up. After a while I stopped long enough to close the door, then drove away from the area and eventually reached the highway. Once I was far enough away, the shaking began. I pulled over briefly to calm down before continuing home.

I told my sister what had happened. She hugged me while also yelling at me for not calling the police at the station. She was right. The woman had used a frightened person’s story to lure a stranger into an ambush, and I was lucky to escape.