22 Times Complete Strangers Stepped Up In Superheroes’ Shoes

Met a guy on the train to East Germany. We ended up partying the night away, becoming good friends, and I spent Christmas with him, his family, and his ridiculously hot GF.

That was the last good meal I had before we deployed to the Gulf.

I remember being blown away by how gracious and kind his parents were toward me. Plus, he bought me a "New Kids on the Block" Christmas album. It was such a catastrophically poor gift but the thought was there.

So now I always invite friends over for holidays, try to go overboard on gifts to friends.

Thanks Thorsten.

EDIT: Well this took an unexpected turn. Thanks to MarkG1 who suggested I try Facebook, I'm now just about reunited with my old friend. I tried different spellings of his last name (I was way the f**k off) and there he was. Unbelievable. Every time I get mad at Reddit for some stupid thing, something like this happens. Jesus...

EDIT 2: Damn, he's still a cook!

EDIT 3: I wish my German skills hadn't disintegrated...

EDIT 4: He just responded. Yep, he's been looking for me too. He said he and his parents still talk about that Christmas. This is awesome.

Ok, here goes.

My SO at the time has a decent walk from the subway every night. On her way home she notices these 2 sketchy dudes following her. She hopes that she is just paranoid, but nonetheless continues to walk at a faster pace and she barely has time to look back a second time that one of the guys has grabbed her purse strap and the other has her grocery bags.

She starts yelling at the top of her lungs... From across the street, second floor she hears " hey you f*****s, what the f**k you doing, imma f**k you guys up!!!"

Out runs this shoe-less, shirtless, long-haired metal head with an electric guitar that he is swinging like Conan the barbarian... (Two-handed-overhead-helicopter-swings, would be the best decription).

And he is screaming like Braveheart or something similar... The two "thugs" must have seen the "crazed" look in this guys eyes but they bolted real fast!

Upon my GF's return home, she explains what had happened. I had to go and thank this guy in person and shake his hand for beeing bad-a*s and avoiding what I assume could've been a tragedy.

We actually became friends and went to see a couple live gigs together. (Lamb Of God and Parkway Drive).

I have since done many good deeds with this "chivalrous" story in mind and I look forward to my chance to threaten to beat someone with a Guitar :)

When I was younger I had abusive parents, like really abusive parents, one night in the middle of a snowstorm they threw me outside in the snow with no shoes or socks and in a tshirt. It was freezing cold. I was wandering around the neighborhood behind the houses because I was too embarassed.

 

Suddenly, a neighbor of mine, (17ish) was sitting on his window smoking and looking at the snow. He saw me, asked what the hell I was doing, I just gave him this look and he leaned out his window, grabbed me by the arms and hauled me up into his window. He gave me some blankets and let me sit there in the warmth for awhile and we just small talked and he put on a movie. A little while later my mother came by, saw him and asked if he had seen me. He instantly, without hesitating told her no, and watched until she left before helping me back home.

 

At the time, it was the kindest thing anyone had ever done for me, the only person who had ever protected me from my abusive parents. Since then I've always been doing my best to help my friends and acquaintances from their abusive families or relationships.

 

TL;DR It can feel so alone being in an abusive situation, and the feeling of having someone protect you never goes away. Pay that s**t forward.

My first weekend of college, my friends and I ended up at a party in an apartment. I made a dumb move and took a drink from a guy i'd just met - a few minutes later I was sitting on the stairs starting to fall asleep. A nice Jewish boy (wearing a yarmelke) saw that something was wrong with me, gave his number to my roommate and walked me home. he said that he recognized what was happening to me as a sign of a possible date drugging, and he didn't want me to be a victim because it had happened to his sister.

One grocery week when I was in college I had my card declined. This was a bit of a problem as the kitchen was entirely out of food and I wasn't going to be payed for another week. It was a really awkward being at the front of the line with $100 worth of groceries having a hasty conversation with my girlfriend about how we were going to deal with this. Well the guy behind us in line offered to pay for our groceries. I tried to talk him down but he insisted and I was feeling really awkward holding up the line. I thanked him profusely and he told me word for word "Just pay it forward if you ever get the chance."

Ever since I've been jamming a dollar or two into every donation box I see, tipping an extra 5%, giving my change to the homeless and otherwise looking for opportunities to 'Pay it Forward'

Hmm, it was a dark, cold and damp thursday night when I was taking a walk in my suburban neighborhood when I was 13 year's old. I often go for walks, especially during night because it feels refreshing and I like not being able to be seen by people when I walk. Anyways, a dark truck pulls up to me and the man roles down the window, inside is a middle aged man who made eye contact with me before saying anything. He proceeded to ask me "how are the kids?" Not knowing what to do, I thought it must have been someone who lived near me and recognized me, so I tried to be friendly and responded "haha I'm only 13." He then said "for a dirty mex, i thought you'd have 5 by now." I was shocked, partly because of this crude remark by some middle aged white guy in a truck and partly because I'm chinese, not mexican. I guess during the night he couldn't see me clear enough. Anyways, I felt the situation was getting pretty sketchy so I started to walk forward. I wanted to cross a street when I noticed that this man was going to follow me. As I tried to cross the street, he sped up and pulled over to block my way. This was when I realized he was up to no good. His headlights were blaring perpendicular to where I was while I was in the complete dark. Out of nowhere, two neighborhood dog's come running towards me. They were two huge half huskies. I recognized them as my neighbor's dogs that he would often let run around his yard and around the neighborhood without a leash. I had always thought that to be dangerous for the dog's incase of cars, but they never got hit or into any harm. They came dashing towards me barking so loudly not a ear in the entire street could have ignored them. That's when the driver pressed his gas pedal full force and tried to get out of there. He thought that the dog's meant that there must have been an owner with them coming to check up on me. However, little did he know that it was just the two neighborhood dog's coming towards me themselves without my neighbor. They had perhaps saved me from being kidnapped or injured by this strange man in his truck. To this day, (I'm 16 now) I am super grateful for both of those dog's being there. I try to return the favor by playing with them when our neighbor is busy and keeping them company with treats and dog toys.

I was 15 and I owned a moped. It was late and raining and this car did not see me as it turned left across my lane. I was t-boned going about 30mph. The car hit me right in my left thigh and my upper body hit and rebounded off of the hood, I flew maybe 20 feet before hitting the pavement. My left thigh snapped in two when the car hit me. I'm laying on the ground screaming for help when this guy comes up and kneels down with a knee on either side of my head so I can't move it around. He does his best to keep me calm and keep the rain off of me until the EMS guys show up and put me in traction and take me to the hospital. During that time the guy is asking me my name and address, making sure I'm coherent. After they took me away he drove to my parents house and informed them that I was in an accident and mostly okay and that they should go to the hospital to see me. He wanted to make sure they got there as soon as possible and thought it would be less jarring than the police showing up at their door. I never got a chance to thank him either but I think about him and his kindness from time to time. I hope one day I can do something similar for someone in distress.

**tl;dr: Hit by a car, random man sits with me and then tells my parents what happened.**

A good samaritan pulled my unconscious body out of my flaming car wreck, waited for the ambulance to arrive, then disappeared. I will never know who saved my life, but rarely a day goes by that I don't think about them.

I didn't have the best childhood. My adoptive father has some unconventional parenting methods, and so I used to cry a lot. On one such occasion I was sitting on a park bench, crying softly to myself. I was trying to be discreet but I couldn't have been more than 11 or 12 at the time. An old lady sat at the other end of the bench and we sat in relative silence for a few minutes (I would sniffle occasionally but I was trying to be quiet). She clearly noticed me wiping my eyes and asked me if I was ok. I told her I was, but she insisted on taking me to a nearby coffee cart and buying me a cup of hot chocolate (it was winter). It was the nicest thing she could have done for me and it was really nice to know that someone cared.

When I was in college, I was out with some friends at a bar and having too much of a good time. I drank a little bit too much tequila when this creeper guy starts buying the group drinks. We were all a little too f****d up to think of saying no, plus you can woo any broke college kids with free booze. He joined our booth and he put his arm around me at some point. Later on I got up to use the bathroom, and obviously did not notice him following me. As I walked into the restroom, a girl was walking out and presumably saw the guy following me in there as she came in about a minute after with the bouncer, catching the creeper trying to break down the stall door. Creeper got thrown out, and random woman saved the day.

 

Now, I always make it a point to look out for overly drunk girls at the bar. I've pulled quite a few girls aside to ask them if they were all right, if they were at the bar alone or with friends, and if they knew the guys they were talking to, and put them in cabs if they were not feeling well/creeped out. It may cost me money, but I'd hate to be in their situation without help. My fiance calls me the bardian angel.

This is going to sound real stupid now but when Ireland just had the plastic bag tax I went into Dublin for Christmas shopping (brought a flimsy plastic bag that I still had lying at home). I ended up buying a bit too much stuff and while waiting for the bus the bag just ripped and left me scrambling for everything.
This middle-aged lady helped me gather my stuff, dived in to her handbag and gave me one of those sturdy reusable bags.
A small gesture that made my christmas.

I was an exchange student in Japan. My friends and I were visiting Kobe for the weekend. Of the three of us, I spoke the most Japanese, but even that was intermediate-level at the very best.

Predictably, we got lost. It was late and cold and we had nowhere to stay (hadn't booked a room or anything). We were passing a karaoke place. It's pretty common for someone to be standing outside of these places yelling about deals and shoving flyers at you. We were so desperate at this point that I asked the guy for help finding a place to stay. He tried to describe a place but even though I could understand most of what he said, we didn't have a map, smartphones or know any street names, so his directions were useless.

The guy paused, looked around and then started running, waving for us to follow. He personally led three foreigners who had no intention of spending money at his karaoke place through the streets at night, apparently at great risk to himself because he seemed absoutely panicked about getting back to his job quickly - even though he took us right to the door of a place where we could stay. We collected every yen we had and shoved it at the guy, but he threw up his hands, seemed aghast and wouldn't accept a dime (figuratively speaking).

I encountered some racist s**t in Japan, but this guy made up for all of it. **tl;dr: Guy put his job on the line to help a bunch of foreigners gibbering at him in awful, broken Japanese.**

I've told bits of this before in other places but here it is. When I was 17 I was in a really bad car accident. The kind that when your parents arrive they have a slight panic attack. I had a car try to cross a highway right in front of me so impact was at about 65-70 mph. Both cars were totaled and had bits scattered all over the highway. My car went spinning through the median and stopped just shy of moving traffic on the other side. A truck driver saw the whole thing happen and stopped. He came to me first and within moments someone had stopped for the other driver so he stayed with me. He helped me call my mom and step-dad on his cell phone and then helped me away from the wreck to sit. He talked to my mom for me to get her to where I was when I started hyperventilating. He called the police and talked to me in between. When the police arrived he talked to them until my parents showed up. Once my parents took over he slipped off and went back to driving his route. I know he was late on his delivery because he called them to say he was going to be and why. I vaguely remember thanking him and I know my parents did too. I had called my step-dad's cell phone from the truckers so my parents had his number. They later called him and thanked him for helping me and he refused any and all gifts they offered. He also helped clean up some of my blood as dangerous as it could have been since he didn't know me.

 

To this day because of him I stop every time I see an accident that doesn't have emergency personnel at it yet. I have a fully stocked first aid kit in my trunk and a couple towels. I've been witness to several accidents and the most awkward one I helped at I was on crutches awaiting knee surgery trying to help the victims. Once they were ok they turned around trying to help me since I was hopping around. They made me sit down and I just played with the child that had been involved. The scariest one I witnessed was several months before that one and involved a drunk driver hitting a car full of teenage girls. I didn't know until I got to the car that she was drunk but once there it was obvious! After several minutes of talking to her several large men had to restrain her so she would stop trying to leave. Some f*****g people... I still stop though.

I was in a foreign country so I didn't have a car and it was a weekend of a public holiday so there was very little public transportation. A friend and I had gone to explore the city managed to walk quite a distance from our hotel. While we were out, over an hour away, it started raining harder than I remember seeing. It was gorgeous when we left, but ridiculously cold and rainy on the way back. My buddy had brought a coat, but I was in a t-shirt. A lady walking down the street towards us with her umbrella stopped me and insisted I take her umbrella. I tried to refuse, but she insisted, telling me that her place was just around the corner. I was already drenched, but it sure did help to walk the remaining several miles with an umbrella instead just my t-shirt. I try to pay it forward by being generous whenever I have something I don't need. Rather than just repaying the one event, I want to be the kind of person that lady was.

Mine sounds ridiculous but this bloke genuinely saved my life. I was very young, probably about 4 or 5 and my parents were about to take me out on my first tricycle. I was sat just outside the gate to my house waiting for my parents when I had a scumbag brain moment:

 

"Hey Rael," my brain said, "yo Mr Mozo, you should totally just lift up your feet. Just lift them up!"

 

I did. I should probably mention that my house is on a very steep hill which leads directly down to a very busy road. It might also help to mention that the wee tricycle had no brakes of any kind. So pretty soon I was shooting down the hill like nobodies business. Straight towards the road. I was too frightened to even think straight. My parents were running after me screaming "Put your feet down!" but I was going too fast. I couldn't hear them and they couldn't keep up with me.

 

Just a few metres from the road, a builder (I think he was a builder but it was a while ago) was loading up his van. He looked up and saw me. Without a word he gracefully strode onto the pavement and as I passed he swiftly and elegantly reached out, grabbed me and lifted me from the tricycle which then rolled over. He set me down on the ground, closed his van, jumped into the front and drove off. Neither me nor my parents ever got to thank him.

 

**TLDR: Anonymous builder lifts me, soiled pants and all, from possessed tricycle headed for certain fairly probable quite likely possible death or at least mild injury then disappears into the night in the middle of the day.**

Last year around August/September my mom and I went grocery shopping. We get food stamps, and when we got done filling our cart we went to checkout. They rang up about $150 worth of stuff and rung our EBT. It said we only had $9.00. I called and it was confirmed. My mom being stubborn just got out her Debit and used that. That was our bill money, now we might get something turned off.

 

Two days later I woke up at 7 am and made up a sign that said "I promised my mom I would help her out, please help" and got my backpack and bike and rode out to a corner. I sat there for about 15 minutes when a guy came up and handed me a tin full of change. Then a real bum came up and asked *ME* for change and I was like, ["Thats what I'm doing"].

 

So I sat there for 5 more minutes and he sat across the road from me. I was like "F**K THIS" and got up and moved, handed him some change from my tin said, "This is your corner man, I'm movin" I went down to best corner. People coming off the highway and you are standing on the drivers side, I was a minute too late as I tried to cross the road another couple came. I crossed and started to head home, I was starting to cry, I wanted to give up. I then said f**k this and turned around.

 

I head 2 blocks down to a corner by a gas station and where people drive out of Walmart. I changed my sign to say "Down on my luck, spare a buck? Your change can make a change" I was there for one hour. I got $2 from a guy my age in a riced out car, $5 from a nurse in a Hummer. I was sitting down with a baggy sweater, my hair in a headband and sunglasses on so people couldn't see my eyes.

 

It was hard, it wasn't the sitting out their begging for money that got to me, it was the looks people give you. The ones that you can see are trying not to look at you. The ones who read your sign, you see their mouths move along they turn to the driver, nod towards you talk more. The ones you look at you with disgust thinking you are trying to buy drugs or something. But as I sat on that corner willing to be there as long as it took even if it was a buck or two at a time to make up our bills, I saw my saving grace walk around the bushes.

 

A man in tan pants and a dark grey shirt who looked like he was on his way to construction came towards me, his wallet in the air and said "I want to help ya out" He crouched down to me and said "How ya doin? I'm Jim, what's your name?" I told him my name, he asked how old I was I was 19 at the time, he said "Ya know I was 18 and homeless for 2 years, I ate outta trash cans, slept under bridges" As he said this he reached into his wallet and pulled out a folded up bill, I saw a 1 so I thought it was a ten and was ecstatic. He continued "But ya know, it got better, now I have my own business and a little more money than I need" He nodded at the bill and I unfolded it. It was a $100 bill!!!

 

I started to bawl. I got up to my knees and gave him a hug and thanked him over and over. He said "God or whoever you believe in loves you, and things are going to change" He got up and left and I sat there blubbering like a baby and then trying to contain myself. I said, that is enough I am not gonna be greedy and so I got up and got on my bike and went home as fast as I could on a broken chain and chainring. I got home and went into my moms room and told her to close her eyes and hold out her hands.

 

She was currently on unemployment due to disabilities, but didn't qualify for disability because she didn't spend enough time in the hospital. I dumped the money out into her hands and she said what is this? She sorted through and her eyes widened when she saw the nice crisp Benjamin. She said "Did you go hooker for money?" I laughed and told her no I went and stood on a corner with a sign. She asked to see the sign and I could just see the shock on her face. She told me thank you but I didn't need to do that. I told her I had to. We found out they changed the date we got our food stamps to 6 days later without informing us. So now I try to give bums that look like they really need it like $5 every time I can afford to do it, and one time I got out and talked to him and gave him a hug.

 

TLDR; Mom thought I hookered myself on a corner, I now give hobos hugs.

When I was around 18 or so, my brother and some friends had a flat tire in the pouring rain. None of us had ever changed a tire, so we kind of stared at the tire and fumbled around with the "tire changing tools" while standing in water half way up to our knees. All of a sudden, a businessman in a suit stops and gets out of his suv, changes the tire in about 30 seconds. We thank him and he ~~runs~~ swims back soaking wet to his suv.

When I was about 10 years old, I used to go skiing on the weekends with Mobil ski club. It was a bunch of kids, anywhere from 8-16 or so, who would pile on a bus early morning on Saturdays, ski all day, and come back that night.

They also held overnight trips. I recall the first, and only, of those trips I went on. I was absolutely terrified. Everyone always seemed to know each other. On the day trips it didn't bother me so much, but on the impending weekend trip, the consequences of loneliness seemed so magnified. I boarded the bus and sat there doing all I could to not break down crying out of fear and anxiety.

An older kid, a snowboarder (still mostly skiers at that time), sat down next to me, which certainly didn't help with my unfounded feelings of inferiority. But he looked down, obviously aware of my situation and said simply: "You scared? Don't worry, man. It'll be alright."

I cannot explain how much of a relief those words were. See, he was, in a metaphorical sense, what I was afraid of. Bigger kids. Cooler kids. Probably mean kids.

Of course I still freaked out that night and called my parents, who planned an impromptu family ski trip, came up for the weekend and saved me from...well, nothing really.

I never got to thank the guy and I am sure he had little sense of the impact he made, but it is 23 years later and I still remember the intense feeling of gratitude. Seriously, I want to give the guy a hug today as much as I did then.

I was visiting my sister in Japan. One day while she was away at work I decided to take her bike and explore the small city she lived in. I was riding along when all of a sudden my back tire blew out. At this point I was pretty far from her house and I didn't not how to get back home. I started walking with the bike when out of nowhere a Japanese guy pulled up in his pickup. He got out of the truck put the bike in the back of the truck and told me to get in the passengers seat. In broken english he said he was going to help me. Well he drove me to a bike shop and took the bike out of the back of the pick and brought it inside the shop. He then proceeded to fix the tire. He apparently was the owner of this bike shop. I paid for the repair and looked around the shop and realized his shop was a block away from my sisters apartment.

TL,DR: Flat tire while riding bike, nice Japanese man helps me out.

I was at an amusement park, standing in line with my friends and her grandmother waiting to get on a water ride. It was really hot that day, and we only went on water rides to make sure we stayed cool. As soon as we got in line I got a headache. Nothing unusual, I get headaches all the time. My friend's parents were a little ways away from the entrance, but not too terribly far. We had gotten half way through the line and my head started pounding and I felt like I was going to throw up. I told my friends I was going to go back. One asked why and I said I wasn't feeling well. I later found out she didn't hear me. Walking back, I started getting black spots all in my eyes. I had to grab onto the rail to keep my balance and to lead me back to the front. As soon as I got to the entrance I couldn't stand anymore and fell down at the front while my vision went completely black. I couldn't see anything for a few seconds. About 10 people passed me before one guy finally went over to help me stand up. I don't remember standing up. I remember the man putting my arm around his neck and start to led me back to my family. A bunch of thoughts went through my mind, "Can I trust this guy? Is he going to kidnap me? I can't defend myself, I can hardly stand up." He was actually really nice, and led me back to my friend's mom and stayed around until the doctors there got to me. I never got to thank him because I hardly had enough breath in me to answer the simple yes and no questions the doctors asked me. I was apparently really dehydrated, but made me realize how little people stop to help people who obviously need it.

Tl;dr: Almost passed out at an amusement park, a guy stopped to help me

Edit: Now that I think about it, the guy looked a lot like an older version of Mitt Romney.