Accepting lifts with strangers.

liah · 11-02-2009 02:36AM

I've done it twice. Once I got stranded out in the middle of absolutely nowhere completely on my own in heels (yes, it was one of those nights) with an appointment to get to and just took the first lift offered, he was coming out of his driveway anyway and it looked like he was a respectable businessman on his way to work so I figured it was okay.

The other time I thought it was a brilliant idea to walk about 7 miles from the country into town in the pitch black dark (in my defense I'm used to Canada where it's completely harmless to do this even in the middle of the night), a car drives up with the window rolled down and metal blaring, a guy pops his head out the window, goatee and all, tells me there's strange people out there, why am I (being a relatively attractive young girl) walking around in the middle of the night, could get raped or murdered or run over. Then he offered me a lift.

So, I got in, and had a brilliant night.

Yes, I'm stupid, but it makes my life oh so entertaining.

Super Sidious · 11-02-2009 02:45AM

ha...

Nehaxak · 11-02-2009 02:49AM

Húrin wrote: »

Thumbing in the city, with buses available, is quite unusual! I'm surprised that it works much.

Well it's a long enough walk at night in usually bad weather (it is Ireland after all) from Phibsboro to Ballymun and the buses are incredibly slow these days (gonna be even worse when they cut the fleet/drivers/routes soon), so it's no hassle to stick the thumb out and hope for the best.

gandhi123 · 11-02-2009 02:55AM

Biggins wrote: »

.........I do charity/volunteer work for the Rape Crises Centre......

I know this is off topic but I'd like to just say keep up the good work and thank you for helping these victims.

I salute you Biggins!!

Super Sidious · 11-02-2009 03:01AM

gandhi123 wrote: »

I know this is off topic but I'd like to just say keep up the good work and thank you for helping these victims.

I salute you Biggins!!

Ted Bundy worked in a rape crisis centre...

gandhi123 · 11-02-2009 03:05AM

flynner13 wrote: »

Ted Bundy worked in a rape crisis centre...

So your saying Ted Bundy = Biggins???

Yeah.. not funny flynner

towel401 · 11-02-2009 03:10AM

Biggins wrote: »

This sounds daft but I have offered to give females a lift before - on one condition though.
Before they get in the car - I hand them my phone (if they not got one) and tell them to ring home/a friend of theirs, etc, and I ask them to give my car reg number and my name/address (I show genuine i.d.) to the person at the other end.
Most also mention what route they are taking and how long they will be if possible.

This relaxes them hopefully and they can hang on to my phone till they get out.

(I do charity/volunteer work for the Rape Crises Centre in Dublin so I know the horror stories sadly)

i wouldn't trust someone with my phone but i'd sit into their car

Super Sidious · 11-02-2009 03:11AM

gandhi123 wrote: »

So your saying Ted Bundy = Biggins???

Yeah.. not funny flynner

bit of a thick skin for AH...

jiltloop · 11-02-2009 03:11AM

I grew up out in Ashbourne, which is the home of the great Johnny Logan. Speaking with a few of the older guys around here, apparently before there was a bus service out here people used to have to thumb lifts into town all the time. I've heard this from more than one person, apparently Johnny used to to regularly pull up in his sports car with his eurovision songs blasting from the radio and give anyone a lift always saying "what do you think of that music? That's me singing!". Even funnier though (veering off topic I know) was a recently he went into one of the dirtier pubs in Ashbourne with loads of hardened drinkers around the bar and asked "can I have a mocha" to which the barman promptly replied "would you like twisty fries with that?" (it was around the time of his McDonalds ads). He was laughed out of the pub.

Super Sidious · 11-02-2009 03:15AM

Are you saying Johnny Logan is Bundy?

Not funny jiltloop

Nehaxak · 11-02-2009 03:16AM

"Johnny Logan is our friend, is our friend, is our friend, Johnny Logan is our friend, he hates rovers." - My 5 year old son unfortunately sings that a lot.
I haven't the heart to tell him I supported Shamrock Rovers as a child

gandhi123 · 11-02-2009 03:18AM

flynner13 wrote: »

bit of a thick skin for AH...

I know this is AH, but rape is NOT funny and it shouldnt be laughed at.

You obviously never had a close friend or relative that was raped...

There's a time and place to rape 'jokes' and boards isnt one of them.

/rant over

Cop on will ya?
Thanks

Super Sidious · 11-02-2009 03:21AM

gandhi123 wrote: »

I know this is AH, but rape is NOT funny and it shouldnt be laughed at.

You obviously never had a close friend or relative that was raped...

There's a time and place to rape 'jokes' and boards isnt one of them.

/rant over

Cop on will ya?
Thanks

Eh relax mate... bundy used to give girls lifts home all the time... and look what happened there... it was relative to the topic.

jiltloop · 11-02-2009 03:25AM

flynner13 wrote: »

Are you saying Johnny Logan is Bundy?

Em.... no.

gandhi123 · 11-02-2009 03:35AM

flynner13 wrote: »

...it was relative to the topic.

Yeah but you referred Ted Bundy to the Rape Crisis Center...which wasn't relative to the thread (IMO).... thats my point..

Anyways forget bout it now... i just hope ya realize here I'm coming from.
Thanks

On Topic:

Once got into a strangers car when i about 11, wasn't really thinking as i was really sick at the time and had just puked my ring in the local shop. Some woman offered to drive me home even thou i leaved about 2 minutes away..Just got into the car without thinking.. i was lucky considering i don't really remember getting into the car or driving home. Could of gotten into anyones car.

Pyr0 · 11-02-2009 03:35AM

gandhi123 wrote: »

I know this is AH, but rape is NOT funny and it shouldnt be laughed at.

You obviously never had a close friend or relative that was raped...

There's a time and place to rape 'jokes' and boards isnt one of them.

/rant over

Cop on will ya?
Thanks

Húrin · 11-02-2009 03:56AM

liah wrote: »

The other time I thought it was a brilliant idea to walk about 7 miles from the country into town in the pitch black dark (in my defense I'm used to Canada where it's completely harmless to do this even in the middle of the night)

Why do you think it would be any more dangerous here than in Canada? AFAIK Canada has a rape rate disproportionately high, to its population.

Mossy Monk · 11-02-2009 04:21AM

Don't accept or offer.

c - 13 · 11-02-2009 06:09AM

I have thumbed a few lifts in my teens when I was stuck. People who picked me up were generally nice, no problems.

I used to travel up a road with not a lot of traffic to work most days in the last job there was some guy thumbing so I stopped since he mightnt have gotten picked up for hours. Turns out I wasnt going close enoguh to where he wanted so he said he'd hold on. Fair enough, least I offered I suppose.

The girlfriend and her ma saw this really old guy looking a bit distressed one day so stopped to see if he was alright, he asked could they drop him home he wasnt feeling too well. He gave them directions and had them drive all over the town to where he lived chatting away, they eventually got back to where they picked him up and he said that was his stop and hopped out. Poor bugger only wanted someone to chat to.

I would never, never pick up a woman either alone or in a group, too easy for them to cry a false rape, seems to happen a bit. Then thats your life ruined.

liah · 11-02-2009 07:16AM

Húrin wrote: »

Why do you think it would be any more dangerous here than in Canada? AFAIK Canada has a rape rate disproportionately high, to its population.

Because the crime rate in general is quite a lot higher than it is back home. In my area there just plain wasn't crime. It just didn't happen. No one worried about anything. I always felt safe, everyone did, and everyone was. Simple as.

And rape is generally not committed out in the middle of a road in the middle of the night, it's generally committed by someone you know in place familiar to you such as your home. Really not a reason to be worrying about walking around outside at night. Plus it's not something I'm particularly frightened of-- Been there, done that. Survived, life goes on. I have a funny attitude about things.

TestTransmission · 11-02-2009 07:25AM

liah wrote: »

Because the crime rate in general is quite a lot higher than it is back home. .

How bad are things in Mullingar these days?

5starpool · 11-02-2009 07:29AM

Biggins wrote: »

This sounds daft but I have offered to give females a lift before - on one condition though.
Before they get in the car - I hand them my phone (if they not got one) and tell them to ring home/a friend of theirs, etc, and I ask them to give my car reg number and my name/address (I show genuine i.d.) to the person at the other end.
Most also mention what route they are taking and how long they will be if possible.

This relaxes them hopefully and they can hang on to my phone till they get out.

(I do charity/volunteer work for the Rape Crises Centre in Dublin so I know the horror stories sadly)

Red tape to get a lift? Sounds way over the top tbh.

liah · 11-02-2009 07:48AM

jackncoke wrote: »

How bad are things in Mullingar these days?

Knackers are on the rise! That's one thing I miss about home, none of them lot!

We just have wiggers, and they're harmless because they're usually too stoned to be bothered doing anything crime-related...

kowloon · 11-02-2009 07:52AM

Traditional wrote: »

i used to do a bit of hitching years ago , got around ireland all the same , once a man of the cloth picked me up and as he was changing gears the old hand moved across , and i popped out !

Fixed for you.

TestTransmission · 11-02-2009 07:54AM

liah wrote: »

Knackers are on the rise! That's one thing I miss about home, none of them lot! We just have wiggers, and they're harmless because they're usually too stoned to be bothered doing anything crime-related...

Eh,its always been like that in Mullingar

minidazzler · 11-02-2009 09:22AM

I have hitched loads of lifts, and I have realised in my time, Foreigners are much more likely to pick you up than Irish People, when you are hitching on Irish roads.

In West Cork/Kerry, it is mostly English people who will pick you up, with the Odd Jerry thrown in for good Measure.

Irish people generally don't pick up hitchers!!! Although, travellers (as in the Caravan type). are brilliant for lifts and a chat!!! Comical people!!!

I was hitching with a buddy around the country once, and we were broke, we were heading back to Limerick from Galway, got picked up by an Old guy, actually a Cork man too, Soundest man I have ever met in my life!!! We were talking to him away and he was telling us the world had been collapsing around us(Last summer near the end when a load of places were going to sh1t). It had been great weather that week, and me and my Buddy had been incommunicado, So when the man had finished his Story, I blurted out, "At least the weather was good!", He nearly took us off the road with laughter!!!!

He was a great man, we were talking and he must have realised we had no money or food left, so he gave us a Roast Beef sandwich, and €20 to get some more food in Limerick city, He was a true gentleman, who restored my faith in Humanity!!!!

So fcuk everyone that says people are not nice anymore!!!

Caoimhín · 11-02-2009 09:35AM

I was always hitching lifts from strangers as a young fellow. Though that was a different time. I wouldnt do it now, way too many weirdos out there.

Just say no kids..

_feedback_ · 11-02-2009 12:03PM

Biggins wrote: »

This sounds daft but I have offered to give females a lift before - on one condition though.
Before they get in the car - I hand them my phone (if they not got one) and tell them to ring home/a friend of theirs, etc, and I ask them to give my car reg number and my name/address (I show genuine i.d.) to the person at the other end.
Most also mention what route they are taking and how long they will be if possible.

This relaxes them hopefully and they can hang on to my phone till they get out.

(I do charity/volunteer work for the Rape Crises Centre in Dublin so I know the horror stories sadly)

Give us a lift will ya ? ? ?

Actually, feck that ... I couldn't be arsed filling out all the forms.

Biggins · 11-02-2009 12:07PM

5starpool wrote: »

Red tape to get a lift? Sounds way over the top tbh.

Its a karma thing for me. I'd hope that someday if any of my daughters was stuck on a road at night, someone would do similar. I get a call in the night to say whats happened that they are delayed, who they are with and if they feel safe.
I'd rather be over the top 15 times than see someone injured or dead once - but thats just the way I feel about things.

Crumble Froo · 11-02-2009 12:12PM

well, australia has quite a lot of dodgy backpacker/hitchhiker stories, and, a month ago, i'd've sworn that id never hitch a lift in ireland, let alone oz...

but we missed the bus... and it was fcuking hot out, and ended up hitching a lift, me and another girl, 17 and 19 years old, thankfully, two chicks picked us up, and they were laughing saying their mothers'd kill them if they knew they'd picked up hitchikers, but it was all good. i might do it again if i was pushed, but definitely woulndt be guaranteed to get in the car just cos someone'd pulled over for me.

Accepting lifts with strangers.

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