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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Leaving someone stranded at 1am at night

449 replies

dranaksjd · 30/08/2016 15:32

Honest opinions wanted here.

Here's the scenario. My friend (she's 26) foudn herself having to return home much later than she expected. This meant she had to get the last train home from Birmingham city centre.

There was a mix up on the departure board which meant she got on the wrong train and ended up in a tiny train station in a village quite far from any major city.

She was clearly distressed as she got off the train and a couple overheard her conversation to her friend. She explain she had only £10
On her, no bank card on her and no idea where she was and no charge on her phone to call anyone to see if they could pick her up.

The couple said they would take her to the main train station in the nearest city which was 10 minutes drive away.

So she got in the car. They dropped her off at that train station at 1am.

She then found a pub willing to let her charge her phone and then when the pub closed she returned to the train station at 2 am. It was at 4am before she realised she could do an emergency transaction using her natwest online banking app.
She comes across as someone who would be comfortably well off so I'm guessing the couple thought she had money but she had explained she did not have her card on her.

She then paid a lot of money for a taxi home.

Now obviously it was nice of the couple to give her a lift the the main train station, but it didn't actually help her much. And they left her at 1am with no cash on her, outside a train station which was boarded up and closed.

That doesn't sit well with me and isn't something I would do. Or am I being unreasonable? Obviously it was unwise of her to travel back at that time but she was not expecting that morning when she left the house to be travelling at that time.

Honest opinions wanted here. And I'm genuinely not the person this post is about.

Just genuinely interested in what others opinion is.

OP posts:
MidnightVelvettheSixth · 30/08/2016 16:04

Ah lots of x posts with all of MN Grin Grin

Lorelei76 · 30/08/2016 16:04

Wow, people come up to you in the street all the time with similar stories as a way to get cash. I've taken a homeless man on crutches to a shelter before but that was an extreme case. Also to be frank I got in a black cab with him, not sure I'd drive a total stranger anywhere.

The couple could have just said no. I think they were generous.

I'm sorry your friend got stuck like that but it sounds like she found helpful people!

Original poster
dranaksjd · 30/08/2016 16:05

Her usual stop is the first stop on the train. She realised only when the announcement came on that the next stop was not hers. She then panicked and got off there.

Actually the train she got on had the same final destination as the one she should have got and came into the platform at the same time with the same departure board up. So she making a complaint. The correct trains as cancelled.

OP posts:
FlyingElbows · 30/08/2016 16:05

Well her friend's not very bright is she?
Train woman: "oh bollocks, I've got on the wrong train, I've got no cash and I'm stuck!"
Friend: "ok where are you? I'll call a cab to pick you up."

See, easy.

bloodyteenagers · 30/08/2016 16:05

A victim? A victim of what? Her own inability to act like a bloody adult and pay attention to what's going on around her.

MadHattersWineParty · 30/08/2016 16:05

Why do you keep posting about your 'friend' and the situations she gets into? It'll end up like some sort of satire blog thing soon HmmConfused

TheClacksAreDown · 30/08/2016 16:06

Like hell would I drive for an hour at 1am to take home a complete stranger. They went out of their way at 1am to assist. I think they did more than enough tbh and your friend should consider herself lucky.

JenLindleyShitMom · 30/08/2016 16:06

She didn't look like a victim

A victim of what exactly? Confused she wasn't one.

Original poster
dranaksjd · 30/08/2016 16:06

It was a fast train so although she wasn't on the train that long,
the train had already gone quite far by that point.

OP posts:
ABloodyDifficultWoman · 30/08/2016 16:07

Actually yeah - who is so monumentally pathetic that they get the wrong train, have no money, fuck about going to odd pubs at 2am and so on - but manage to have a phone charger with them?
Swiss cheese anyone?

bloodyteenagers · 30/08/2016 16:07

So now we are led to believe that at the departing station there was no mention of the train she should have been on getting cancelled?

LurkingHusband · 30/08/2016 16:07

FlyingElbows

Well her friend's not very bright is she?

I am surprised at your restraint ...

MaudGonneMad · 30/08/2016 16:07

Actually the train she got on had the same final destination as the one she should have got and came into the platform at the same time with the same departure board up. So she making a complaint. The correct trains as cancelled.

What, precisely, is she complaining about? That she didn't read the departures board correctly?

IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece · 30/08/2016 16:08

I'm presuming If she "paid a lot of money for a taxi" she was relatively far from home so why on earth are you being such an Arse over the kind people who dropped her too the station?!
Why should they have to drive for an age to take her home just because she's so daft?! Perhaps they have things to get back to, don't want to drive so late, can't afford the extra petrol...any number of reasons....they don't deserve you to get all high and mighty over what YOU would've done

AvengeTheDoc · 30/08/2016 16:08

She got a lot of help, I wonder if you'd expect a random couple to pick up a random man who says he had nothing and drive him home Hmm

ElspethFlashman · 30/08/2016 16:08

A victim!

GrinGrinGrin

Idliketobeabutterfly · 30/08/2016 16:09

Yikes, please tell me this is unusual for a 26 year old....

Lorelei76 · 30/08/2016 16:10

PS I know my sister has been caught out like this and still refuses to learn but...take more than one bank card out too. It's Sod's law that when something goes wrong, a bank will also have some kind of failure that means you can't get cash, or the magnetic strip on the card goes etc etc.

FrancisCrawford · 30/08/2016 16:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PenelopePitstop24 · 30/08/2016 16:10

Not to be rude, but was she drunk? If you've had a few you're more likely to not think of your options clearly.
I don't think the couple done anything wrong, I think they done a nice thing dropping her somewhere central. Most people wouldn't have.
Did you expect them to take her all the way home? They don't know her, she could have been a murderer/scammer - I know that sounds a bit extreme but you never know!

Original poster
dranaksjd · 30/08/2016 16:11

Unfortunately her phone died before she could say her location.

OP posts:
LauraMipsum · 30/08/2016 16:11

Your friend sounds like an absolute pudding.

If she was stuck in a city waiting for the first train she could have found the nearest police station to sit and wait in if she felt unsafe. Definitely not the couple's responsibility to rescue her any more than they already did.

MrsHam13 · 30/08/2016 16:12

None of this makes sense. How did the online banking allow her to get money when she had no card?

When I was in a city on a night out I lost my husband.He had been holding my bag with my purse etc. I had forgot my mobile and his had ran out. Our daughter had had a bday party so he got the train up before me and met a friend and then I went later. In my drunken state I totally forgot the name of where we were staying and he had went to drop bags off before me so no idea of location.

So I walked and found a police officer told him my predicament and used his mobile to contact my dad and ask for his help. SURELY your friend could of found a way to help her self more. She had a tennar. She could of called someone - friend/family who could of picked her up or got cash for her to get a taxi there and pay with a loan of the money. She could of just got in a taxi and told him she needed to go to her house then cash machine or home. She could of went online and booked a hotel room.

The couple did more than enough.

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 30/08/2016 16:12

Yup - why are you mad at the kind strangers? She could have made a reverse-charge phone call from a call box. How far was she from home? Hasn't she got any friends/relatives she can call to pick her up in an emergency? Then she wouldn't have needed cash (having reversed the charges/charged her phone and called someone). I also don't understand why she was in the pub for an hour when phones turn back on as soon as they are plugged in - plug phone in, turn it on, call friend/family, job done!

Jackie0 · 30/08/2016 16:12

I've recently discovered Uber and it's great !
No cash required
Sorry that sounds like I'm sponsored Grin

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