News

When this man offered to help his elderly cab driver with his phone, things escalated quickly

Picture:
Picture:
Cameris / iStock Getty

If there's one thing that growing up, reading fairy stories teaches us, it's don't trust strangers.

Now, this kind-hearted Reddit user had this message hammered home, when he offered to help his elderly cab driver with his phone.

Taking to the Reddit thread 'today I f***** up', he wrote:

Let me start with my personal rule when riding taxis: when the taxi driver tries to strike up a conversation with you, always reply and try to maintain the dialogue, especially late at night.

Like a lot of you, I’m introverted and little socially awkward but I do this because they might be working a long shift and the conversation helps them stay alert.

He then launched into his story.

Opening up, he described how the whole thing started out pretty innocently, as his elderly Chinese driver said he was having issues with the SD card in his Samsung mobile phone. Seeing as they both had the same phone, the Reddit user agreed to take a look.

About half an hour past midnight, I took a cab home, a 15-minute ride at most.

The taxi driver was an elderly Chinese man, and he started asking me the usual questions like what I do for a living and where I’m from.

He eventually mentioned that he bought this new Samsung phone recently.

I told him that I had the same phone and he immediately asked if I could help him with a problem he’s been having.

Specifically, he installed his old SD card to his new phone, but some of the videos in the card can’t be played anymore and some can only be played until a certain point and then stop.

I immediately thought that it was probably caused by a corrupt or damaged SD card (he did mention that it was a very old card) and told him to replace it when he gets a chance.

He asked if I could have a look at it anyway, and I agreed, thinking that I’m being helpful to an old man who’s struggling with new technology.

Then, things began to take a turn for the worse.

He stopped the taxi on the driveway of my apartment, right in front of the entrance and handed me his phone.

The first thing I noticed was that the touchscreen was not very responsive.

I immediately showed him how to increase the sensitivity setting of the touchscreen to accommodate for having a screen protector and he was so thankful and it made me feel good that I helped improve this old man’s life to some small extent.

That feeling didn’t last long, though.

Queue lots of photographs of a much younger woman...

He then started to show me where the broken videos are by opening his google photos app.

I tried my best not to pry on this old man’s private life, but as he scrolled through the app, I started to get this sinking feeling.

I noticed that he had a lot of photos of this young woman, who I assumed was his daughter at first… until I realised that a lot of them are racy pictures.

It's 'wrinkly butt' time...

I tried to remain positive by thinking that it’s good that he’s still able to enjoy camgirls at that age.

He eventually got to the videos he mentioned earlier and handed me his phone.

I tried to open the videos and indeed, they seem to be broken as the phone just goes greyscreen when I try to open them.

He then told me to check the video that seemed okay when it starts playing but stops at some point.

He opened the first video from that day and moved the time slider to about halfway through the video to a shot of him walking past the camera… butt-naked.

The shot started with his butt right in front of the camera, so close that I could see the wrinkles on them.

And to top it off, after his butt left the frame, I saw that behind him was a bed, with the woman in the pictures earlier lying on top of it.

The Reddit user then quickly handed the phone back to the old dude.

After the shock of seeing his wrinkly old manbutt faded, I realised that I was trying to help him recover his sex video with this girl and that I probably shouldn’t touch that phone anymore.

I immediately handed his phone back to him like it was a hot potato while at the same time repeating my earlier recommendation that he should probably change his SD card.

Now, just to top it off, there's one more twist to add insult to injury.

He did genuinely sound thankful for my advice, and I was about to leave when he asked if I could take his business card, as he was looking for tenants for his apartment and maybe I could refer his place to some of my friends.

Desperate to end this very awkward situation I just agreed and took his card.

Glad that this whole situation was finally over, I was about to leave once again when he asked if he could also get my number in case he was in the area we could grab a coffee outside.

I was going to give him a fake number, but he then told me to just call his phone since I already had his card.

Not knowing what else to do, I begrudgingly dialed his number. After another round of goodbyes, I got inside the building as fast as I could and washed my hands immediately.

(Edit for additional context: I'm a guy living in one of the safest countries in the world so I didn't feel threatened all. It was just an incredibly awkward and weird experience.)

Needless to say, many other Reddit users were pretty shocked by the story, but took the opportunity to point out that it really could have gone a lot worse than it did.

One suggested that the whole thing was obviously an evil plan concocted by the cab driver.

Another suggested something far, far more disturbing.

Others said they thought the protagonist was a girl the entire time.

And some shared why you really shouldn't look at other people's phones.

Someone else summed it up.

Whatever your take, the moral of this tale is that sometimes, you really can be a bit too kind and trusting.

And, never underestimate your cute elderly taxi driver.

HT Someecards

More: Why you should never share your pictures with strangers

More: 11 things you should never share on social media

The Conversation (0)
x