Was reading our local paper today and happened upon a couple of interestingly stated public safety reports:

Taken for ride
No good deed goes unpunished, but a local couple led with their chins recently when they agreed to drive home a drunken stranger who flagged them down in the middle of the night. (Later the article says they were flagged down by "an unknown, dumbfounded woman.")

The adventure ended at the police station where the chagrined couple unloaded the toasted tease as she lay passed out in their car.

Feisty, sloppy, drunken and obnoxious
On March 11 at 5:10 am, two public safety officers rushed to the 1300 block of Hollywood after numerous 911 calls (about) someone with a white shirt over his head pounding on the doors of at least four homes.

Officers quickly located a drunken 24-year-old man...who slurred like the drunk he was.

In the first description of its kind to make the police blotter this year, officers said the man "was soaking wet and his clothes were covered with mud."

(There's more thrilling detail, but the item concludes)- Officers charged him with prowling and "tumultuous conduct."


Thank God the Public Safety department is on guard to protect the rest of us law-abiding citizens from toasted teases and those who conduct themselves tumultuously. (And please don't judge the overall intelligence of the area by those who pick up drunken strangers after midnight.)

Dear nancyk: Re:

"No good deed goes unpunished"

While many a Good Samaritan may have a dismal reward for his kindness, I think the "street wise" urban avoidance of "getting involved" can be uncivilized. I agree that the couple who took the woman into their car were being generous above and beyond the call. But that woman might have had a severe medical problem, and they should have at least have made sure she got help. Would have been nice if they had had a cell phone.

I hope the cynical quote was not yours.