A California man learned the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished when he stopped to help a stranger. Sadly, the good Samaritan was tied up, doused in gasoline, and set on fire — and now, his story is serving as a warning to others.
An unnamed 33-year-old California man was driving along a rather rural area about 40 miles north of Sacramento, shortly before 11 pm on a Wednesday night when he spotted a stranger, who appeared to be in some kind of distress. Near the intersection of Hutchinson Road and South George Washington Boulevard, roughly 10 miles southwest of Yuba City, a seemingly stranded woman was standing near a black SUV on the side of the road.
As the man drove by, the woman flagged him down, indicating she was in need of help, according to Fox 40. Being a good Samaritan, the man pulled over, exited his vehicle, and approached the woman to see how he could be of assistance. Sadly, he quickly realized it was a setup.
No sooner than the man had left the safety of his own vehicle, two seemingly armed men jumped out of the woman’s SUV. One of the men appeared to have a gun and the other a knife. Threatened with violence and being held at gunpoint, the unnamed good Samaritan complied with the group’s demands, but it would all be in vain.
After the suspects restrained the driver, zip-tied his legs together, and stole his wallet and car keys, they could have made a quick getaway, but instead, they seemingly decided to try to eliminate the possibility of leaving behind a witness.
With complete disregard for the good Samaritan’s life, the three criminals doused him with gasoline, pouring the flammable fluid all over him. Then, they lit him on fire before driving away, taking the victim’s car as well as their own SUV and leaving their victim stranded and burning alive. Thankfully, even under such distress and in what had to be immense pain, the victim still had the wherewithal to extinguish the flames.
After rolling on the ground to put out the blaze, the good Samaritan-turned-victim was able to call the sheriff’s office for help, according to MSN. Deputies from Sutter County Sheriff’s Office responded, meeting the man near the intersection where he had been ambushed by the three suspects. He was quickly transported to a nearby hospital for burn treatment.
Police found the victim’s vehicle a few miles away as well as a replica gun that had also been discarded in the area, but the suspects were long gone. Although the victim did not get a good look at his attackers, he said he did “perceive” them to be of Middle Eastern descent, The Blaze reported.
Although local residents were stunned, saying the area was generally safe and that people regularly stopped to help others on the side of the road, The Post Millennial reported, “There are some sections of Northern California that have some of the highest crime in the country. One of those areas, Tehama County, just north of Yuba City, had to suspend its daytime police patrols due to what they described as ‘catastrophic staffing shortages.'”
Pretending to be stuck on the side of the road in order to trick people who stop to help you is about as depraved as it comes. It certainly takes a special kind of evil to use someone’s good intentions against them in order to do them harm, going so far as to burn them alive. These are the kind of people who make the world a very scary place to live, and we hope they get exactly what they deserve.
Meanwhile, those of us with caring hearts have to be careful. If you see someone in need of assistance in a remote and isolated area, it’s likely better to phone authorities from your car than to get out to help them by yourself, especially if you don’t have the means to protect yourself should someone be armed and threaten violence. That’s just the sad state of affairs we are in, where so many among us can’t be trusted and we have to keep ourselves safe rather than risk being sorry.
