i've helped a few folks before. the one i remember most was an old lady in an avalon with a completely shredded rear tire. i was on my way home from work as a mechanic - still had my dirty, sweaty uniform on. she said she was waiting for AAA and that it would be a few hours. i said that's crazy, it's 110 degrees out here, i can change it in 5 minutes. she was hesitant at first, but it probably helped that my uniform said toyota on it, and that i told her to stay in the car with the a/c on - i could do everything as long as she just popped the trunk from inside. thankfully there was a nice wide apron of concrete where she'd stopped; the state was planning on building an exit there in the future but hadn't started that yet. it gave us a good 15 feet of empty pavement between the side of the car and the traffic going by at 75mph. as i finished putting the flat and tools back into her trunk, she asked me what she owed me and when i said nothing, she forced a $20 bill into my shirt pocket and said "at least get yourself a cold drink!"
another guy in a suburban dropped a driveshaft right in front of me, in the middle of nowhere, again on a hot day. lucky for him it was the tail end of the driveshaft, not the front end, so it just dragged along, chunking the pavement (throwing rocks at me), and he calmly pulled over to the shoulder. i gave him a ride to the next town, 10 miles up the road and gave him a few bucks for a drink and to make phone calls (this was before everyone had cell phones).
times are different now though, and people will sue if you try to help them, or worse - fake needing help and mug/kill you instead. so i rarely stop to help anymore unless it's pretty obvious that it's not a scam (like the driveshaft guy) - usually because i saw the problem actually happen.
