commentary by Patrick H. Moore
They say that no good deed goes unpunished and our new hero – the savvy and exuberant Jennifer Jones (not the actress who passed on in 2009) – just learned this the hard way in Honolulu when her Good Samaritan gesture of rescuing an injured passenger from a wrecked SUV resulted in her car being hi-jacked by the driver of the wrecked SUV.
Here’s what happened – facts provided by Charlene Sakoda of Odd News complete with some wonderful quotes from Jennifer:
Driving home on a Honolulu, Hawaii freeway, Jennifer Jones witnessed a serious SUV crash. Smoke was pouring out of the wrecked vehicle and Good Samaritan Ms. Jones instinctively pulled over to help. She was in a hurry and she left her own keys in her own blue Miata:
“There was a woman hanging half out of the passenger side and she looked pretty bad. There was blood all over her,” said Jones.
Ms. Jones has trained in First Aid and CPR for 17 years and she quickly pulled the injured woman out of the SUV. Then things got a little weird. A man who is believed to have been the driver emerged from the SUV and made an off-the-wall remark to Jennifer asking her if she needed a taxi. Jennifer was naturally nonplussed by the remark and told the man that she was waiting for an ambulance with the injured victim. Then things get a little murky but the upshot of it is the reported driver allegedly stole Jennifer’s blue Miata. Here’s how she describes it:
“He just kind of backed away looking at me, but backed away this way and then all of a sudden my brake lights went on and burned rubber and it screeched off. It took a minute to register that this man just stole my car.” Jennifer pondered the question with KHNL Hawaii News Now, “Who’s going to come steal your car while you’re rendering first aid? It’s just unfathomable that someone would do it.”
The accident took place on the H1 freeway at the Waialae exit in Honolulu, Hawaii. (KHON) The second male passenger apparently remained at the scene of the crime.
Now Jennifer Jones was definitely not the sort to take this lying down.
Thinking quickly, Jennifer realized that her iPhone was in her missing car. Thoroughly prepared for this emergency, she tracked it using the Find My iPhone app. Then she relayed the information to the Honolulu Police who located the blue Miata within minutes.
Disturbingly, the interior of the car had been senselessly trashed before the thief had abandoned it. Fortunately, though, Jennifer’s belongings were intact inside her car along with some of the thief’s own clothes. The police are still searching for the man who stole our do-gooder’s car.
“My friends were all teasing me, It’s like ‘That’s not CSI, Jennifer. This is not Hawaii Five – O. It’s not going to geotrack your phone.’ I’m like, ‘It will,’” said an adamant Jones.
The crash victim, who was treated at a nearby hospital, initially told Jennifer a whopper – presumably after the thief had made his getaway. The victim tried to make herself out as even more of a victim, claiming that she was hitchhiking and that she’d been picked up by the men in the SUV and that the accident was caused by a struggle when one of the men held a knife to her.
This excellent tall tale turned out to be just that. When the police arrived on the scene, they arrested the other male passenger, 22-year-old Christopher Daniels, for unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle and an outstanding warrant. The police ascertained that the injured woman was in reality the girlfriend of the runaway thief.
Not only that but it was the second theft of the day pulled off by this nefarious crew. Jennifer Jones explained, “The police later informed me that indeed that car was stolen and those three people had just taken it off of a dealership lot.”
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Jennifer Jones doesn’t buy the “no good deed goes unpunished” riff. She is of the belief that simply doing the right thing, which sometimes requires a bit of personal sacrifice, is ample reward which keeps her alert for more opportunities to help out.
She put it like this: “Their bad actions aren’t going to change my good actions. I would still stop today if I saw a car. You know, it’s, it’s the right thing to do. It’s Hawaii, we should be watching out for each other.”
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It’s the right thing to do. How can you argue with that? You can’t, any more than you can argue with a Maui sunset.