To find this man in park suspicious

I watched one of those fbi profiler type programs talking about men who hurt women and children. He said Men without nefarious intentions never ask children or lone women for help as they are aware it puts them in danger. I live by this, men wait for other men to ask for help. He had a phone he could have called his girlfriend etc.

We have no idea if he was telling the truth about his injury or request, hence ted bundy. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to be able to fake an injury to get a victim into a car.

Yes, I’m paralysed from the waist down, my legs are useless but I drive an adapted car quite happily.

The adaptations aren’t obvious to a casual onlooker either, so this man’s car might have been modified.

You allowed a strange man to get in your car with you? And with your child? That's extremely dangerous

No decent man would ask a woman if he could get in her car.

Why on earth didn't he call his girlfriend if was struggling? We don't know for sure she even existed, but if she did, she should have been the first person he asked for help.

Nothing bad happened, but that could be because OP's sister was watching. We don't know he had real mobility issues, that could be faked. We also don't know if he had other plans if he wasn't being watched.

Violence against women happens every day and pp are right, we need to teach our daughters to say no to men. I'm very glad you and your DD are ok OP and I'm glad this was a chance for you to talk to her about these issues and what to do in future.

A few years ago we might have all thought that anyone advising women against getting in a car with a police officer had a vivid imagination too.

Well... he wasn't a suspicious character, was he? Because nothing happened. He was telling the truth. He couldn't walk, and needed a short lift. It might seem like an odd request to me at first but then I'm lucky enough not to suffer from mobility issues.

From his perspective, he almost certainly wouldn't have seen himself as a potential threat, given that he couldn't walk, and was himself in the more vulnerable position.

On a more general level YANBU to be careful about letting strangers into your car but the fact is that this time, you actually did a nice thing for someone who needed it.

Or highly active imaginations!!

Some of the replies here are comedy gold. Check your car for air tags? Ted Bundy?

Not at all. We just have some common sense.

I'm glad you've discussed this situation with your daughter. I've spent years teaching my daughters we don't 'owe' politeness to strangers, especially when our safety could be at risk, like in a situation just like this. This was after a conversation with my (then young) daughter when she told me about a conversation she'd had with a man in the street which had made her feel uncomfortable. When I asked why she hadn't ignored him, she said she didn't want to appear rude. I realised I'd spent years teaching my daughter to be polite & kind (and also obviously taught about 'stranger danger') but hadn't taught her life skills about assessing situations and handling them, that it's ok to be as absolutely rude as you want when your safety is at risk. We are so conditioned to be 'nice' that it puts us at risk.

You could have said something along the lines of -
"I think you need to ask a man for help, not a woman on her own with her daughter" - would have made him have a think about what he was doing.

I wonder how many posters who think this is OK have sisters and haven't been brought up with brothers?

I would not let a man that I didn't know into my car under any circumstances. Why put yourself at risk? Any decent man would realise that asking a women to do this is wrong.

If necessary I would have stopped the next passing man and asked them to help and would walk away.

Some of the replies here are comedy gold. Check your car for air tags? Ted Bundy?

Probably replies from the very same people who would be the first to report and rant at any disablist comments.

There were two of you, And would have been more cautious if You were alone most probably. He was probably cold, fed up waiting for his GF, and thought he would rather sit in the car and listen to a podcast, the radio or read his book. I know I would.

And for some predators doing it in a more public place makes them feel like god. It's also a well known fact that serial killers escalate and escalate how sloppy their behaviour is, taunting to get caught. One of the most recent cases of abduction was on a busy London street in public.

Fact is you can't properly risk assess the bad actors from the men in a jam. Most men know this and it doesn't help the situation by normalising that women put their own safety to one side to be support human. No.

It would absolutely not have been unreasonable if you'd said no to his request.

However, I also think your sister (and a lot of the people answering on this thread) are being very disproportionate in their risk assessments. It's a very different situation to Ted Bundy, for example - Ted Bundy lured women, alone, to his car which was parked in a quiet spot where there was not going to be anyone else around. That's a very, very different situation to a man asking two people in a their car to drive him a few yards across an open car park of a busy public park.

I do agree that he would have been better not to choose a woman to ask, but I suspect that he asked you seeing that your daughter was in the car with you and thinking it would be OK to ask because there was two of you.

The ability to drive is neither here nor there. Walking and driving are completely different types of movement and you don't know what his actual condition was. For example some neurological conditions, things like Parkinson's, can make some things almost impossible while other things are very easy. My dad could drive perfectly well when he couldn't walk more than a few steps. And for people with other types of condition, it's worth remembering that driving isn't weight-bearing like walking. And there are also adaptations that can be made to cars.

Just so you know op, seeming sincere is no evidence of anything. Lots of predators have personalities and acting skills that they employ when trying to get women to leave safe public places.
Just no. Always no.

I would be immediately suspicious and not let him in my car.

My understanding is that OP and her DD were with OP's sister at the park. The man was watching them for a while but did not request the OP's help until the sister had said goodbye and got into her car to leave As it happened Dsis hadn't actually driven away so was able to watch it all. I may have misunderstood though.

Hang on was hi sister there too?

@HammerTimeNC Don't beat yourself up about it. Nothing bad actually happened but it's given you an opportunity to think through the potential risks and opened a conversation about it with your DD. That's a good thing.

I can see how these things take you by surprise. Sadly though, I think it would probably be better to say, "Sorry I'm not comfortable giving a stranger a lift in my car." And let him wait for a man to come along.

This.

This!