News

With friends like these …

March 30, 2012

When two men assisted him off a London bus after he had an epileptic fit, Hugh Sach of Winchester, England, thought he'd met two Good Samaritans, said a report at dailyecho.co.uk. Unfortunately, that was only half true.

The first kind soul went on his way after seeing Sach safely to the curb. "[T]he other was persistent in staying with me," Sach said later. “I realized he had my bank card he must have taken off me — when I have a seizure, I'm not really aware of what's going on round me. He said, ‘What’s your PIN? We’ll go to the cashpoint and you can get some money and get a taxi home’.”

The stranger forcibly escorted Sach to an ATM, where he demanded to be paid £20 ($32) for his generous assistance. Then, rethinking the value of his services, he emptied Sach's account of the £300 ($479) he'd saved for his wedding the following month.

“I was vulnerable and he took advantage," Sachs said to the Daily Echo and added in a dramatic understatement. "People like that are sad and pathetic."

Happily not all people are "like that." The landlord at a pub started a collection to replace the wedding money. And after initially telling Sach there was nothing they could do about his stolen funds, HSBC eventually was persuaded to replace the money.

Sach said he would forward donations from the pub to the National Society for Epilepsy. If they find his assailant, police will perhaps explain to him that that's how Good Samaritanism is supposed to work.