Back off guys, I actually have something to contribute.
It was Friday, I only had two classes that day: one that ended at 9:30, and the other that started at 1:30. Obviously that gives me a lot of down time in between, so I usually took that time to study and pal around with some friends I had in the 9:30 class, then leave for lunch around eleven. I was walking to the parking lot to get to my car, and large black man at the bus stop on campus (the bus stop is in between the building of my 9:30 class and the lot I parked at) asked me the location of a gas station, because he didn't have his phone on him. Actually not the first time a random stranger has walked up to me on campus and asked to use my phone. I looked it up for him. The station was not within feasible walking distance, but it wasn't far either, maybe a five minute drive. That's when this middle-aged guy asked me to drive him to the gas station (of course, after introducing himself). I had around two hours until my last class and he seemed didn't seem like a malicious person, nothing tripped me off about him as being threatening. Talkative, middle-aged, spoke lightly, clearly tired, walking around on college campus, and overweight. I asked him some questions, all his responses didn't trip off warnings and he was not... I don't know... stretching for answers? He had a story and it made sense, all the details checked out and he wasn't hesitating like he was lying about it.
His car had broken down, and he dropped it off at a mechanic conveniently next to the gas station, then went to work... somehow. Can't remember the story, this was a bit of time ago. He saw a bus schedule that could take him to the gas station that lined up with the end of a third shift at work. Turned out, the bus took him to a different gas station (same name, same company) that was across the street from the the building I had my class in. He intended on walking into the college at the help desk and getting the bus schedule to the correct gas station, and flagged me down because I was literally on the way to the help desk. I easily believed I was the first person he ran into, since I left the study session early at an irregular time on an even more irregular day, Friday. Can't blame him for approaching me, felt bad for him, had nothing better to do, and he looked friendly enough.
Took him to the gas station, took closer to ten minutes. His car wasn't done, he didn't have his cell phone to have known it would've been done (again, that's why he initially asked me for the location of this station), so he pleaded me to drive him to a hospice care center.
Yeah, a hospice care center.
Turned out he was a pastor at a church not too far from the college, which is why he was rather easy to talk to. Don't remember the church, because the area I lived in, despite being northern Ohio and not in the Bible Belt, had literal dozens of churches within a ten minute drive. But I knew that church, it was sort of a halfway point between the college and where I live. He had a daughter who was born with a kidney problem and had to go through constant dialysis at the hospital to remain healthy. She happened to be going through a surgery to be helping her kidney problem in a few hours, and the guy was trying to get there after pulling off a third shift, which is why he couldn't wait for his car to be fixed. Apparently he had no other ride, since he didn't have a phone, and the person who was watching over his daughter while she worked (think it was a nanny) obviously couldn't drive him because she was caring for his daughter. So he asked me, obviously the nearest sucker whom he knew would drive him someplace, to take him to this hospice center like a half hour away.
Sure, I went along with it. He offered to pay me, but I didn't want it. He was clearly emotional when describing his daughter's illness and his distinct possibility of not being able to see her the day of her surgery, plus it really wasn't a burden on me besides the gas. He was a great passenger: talked to me a bit about religion, a bit about marching band when he saw my music books in the back of the car, a bit about his financial situation and how humiliating it was that he had to work third shift at some factory yet he still was stuck in the situation without a car. Of course, driving out of my way into a predominantly black neighborhood under the guidance of a guy I had just met an hour ago could have gone so badly, but as I said, everything he said was accompanied by an emotional reaction and there was obviously no hesitation to make me believe he was making shit up. Not only that, but he gave me his phone number if I needed compensation too. Plus, the hospice center was across the street from a church -- not the church he was a pastor at, mind, but a church nonetheless.
I dropped him off, said goodbye, and drove back to college with barely enough time to eat and get into class. Nothing bad came from it.
He might've been bullshitting me. Something about how he left the car and kind of... glanred at me as he walked into the buliding was really out of character for what I knew of him that previous half hour. I don't know if he wanted me to be around anymore, like he milked me of my uses and he was embarrassed I was there. I don't know. Because we exchanged numbers at some point in that adventure, he called me exactly once, the next day, asking to meet up with me in the parking lot of a shopping mall and compensate me, but I had to work that day and told him to call back. Not that I particularly wanted the money, I was just a little bit curious and wanted to meet him on different grounds than, you know, driving him to an unfamiliar neighborhood. He never called back, and I never called either. Something about how easily that situation could've gone wrong makes me want to wash my hands of the whole event and forget it happened. I would forget it, but I really liked that guy. Bugs me that I'm constantly conflicted over whether he is a nice guy who acted weird in a bad situation, or some sort of scuzzball that used me as a free chauffeur then disappeared. Super cool guy to talk to and all, but I wish I met him in a different way than him asking me to drive him to a location over half an hour away.
Best part, I can't even remember his name, nor the church he supposedly preached at. I have him in my phone contacts as Peter, but I swear his name was Steven.