A Melbourne man has revealed why a “really bad” feeling kept him from helping a woman who was “screaming in pain” on the ground next to his car.
Aaron was driving with his girlfriend late at night when they came across the bizarre scene on Filbert Street in Caulfield South, in the city’s southeast.
“When I turned onto the street, I saw a vehicle ahead with no headlights on, so I turned my high beams on twice,” he explained in a video posted to social media.
The car, which Aaron said had been “strategically” parked on the curve of the quiet suburban street, remained suspiciously dark.
“I got closer to the vehicle and that’s when I noticed the driver’s side door was fully open,” he continued.
“My girlfriend and I noticed a female body on the ground outside the vehicle, and we were both very scared.”
‘She was holding her leg, screaming like she was dying. She was telling me to get out, she was screaming, please help me, come out, please, I’m dying.
Aaron was driving to pick up food with his girlfriend when he came across the bizarre scene on a suburban street in Caulfield South, Melbourne’s south-east.
Aaron told his girlfriend to stay in the car and unbuckled his seatbelt to help the woman. However, a ‘really bad’ feeling stopped him dead in his tracks.
‘I was this close to opening the door. I grabbed the handle,” she said.
‘I don’t know why I didn’t open the door, I just left. I had this feeling. I couldn’t tell you what it is.
“My girlfriend was in the car and she couldn’t understand why I left and didn’t help.”
Aaron told his girlfriend that “it’s not real” and asked her to dial triple zero, and Victoria Police were on the scene within minutes.
Officers asked the couple to stay in their car while they searched the nearby streets, however the woman and car were nowhere to be found.
They told Aaron that he had done the right thing by calling the police.
“I was told that a situation like this happened three weeks ago where a woman pretended to be hurt and an innocent person would come out, try to help and be kidnapped, if not hurt,” he said.
Officials said a man who was ambushed less than a month ago was struck in the back of the head with a brick and knocked unconscious.
After turning into Filbert Street, Aaron and his girlfriend saw a woman next to a dark car “screaming that she was dying” and grabbing her leg.
Aaron said he was “very lucky” to have decided not to help the woman and urged other drivers to be aware of similar situations.
“It’s fucking scary and it happens,” he said. ‘Never get out of your car, always stay in your car and dial triple zero.’
In a bizarre twist, police later said they had found a woman who was genuinely injured and needed help.
“The community member called 000 and left the scene,” a police statement read.
Officers attended and located the woman at her nearby address.
“He was looking for help after his car rolled when he got out of his vehicle, causing him to injure his leg.”
Despite Aaron misreading the situation, many Australians applauded him for listening to their gut, and several shared their own horror stories.
“Something like this happened to a dear friend in 2002,” one person wrote.
‘It was a woman with a crying baby, she doesn’t remember anything after she jumped out of the car and was found by the garbage truck in the middle of the street unconscious with a bleeding head. She lost her car and had her skull smashed in.
Another said similar situations had been going on in Sydney ‘for years’.
“Never go out or open doors for anyone,” the user advised.
