Today I meet the luckiest man in Jacksonville

Coming home from work I noticed a man with a newer Mustang convertible in front of a neighbors house.  Caught my attention because I'd never seen it there before.  Lil Stampie and I got in my truck to hit the grocery store and he flagged us down.  Said that he had a flat tire and couldn't find his tire iron.  Asked if I had a 4 way one by chance.  I looked at my junkyard bucket sitting beside me, handed him my deep socket set, reached into the floorboard and handed him my cordless impact, and then told him there was a jack in the bed of the pickup if he wanted it also.  The look on his face was funny.  What are the odds you stop someone like me with a request like that?

The Mustang guy flagged you down.  What are the chances that your neighbors said, "...if anyone, this guy has what you need!"  

Ha. fun.  

I guess this makes you a super hero and your power is "tools and auto repair"

Way to help out, the world needs more folks like you and your son. Last spring one of my friends was towing a toy hauler for another friend from FL to MA. At 1 AM just before the GA border they blew a trailer tire. Pulled over, got the spare on but noticed the other tire had been damaged by the blow out. They check and there is a Walmart  20 miles from where they are. They carefully cruise to Wally world. It is 3 AM, my friend's wife goes in to get a wheel and tire (they had checked stock on line) while he gets to work getting the damaged tire off. Turns out, they do not have the proper size in stock. As his wife is heading for the door, in walks a guy with a trailer tire and wheel he is returning,  it was the wrong size for him, the correct size for my friends. They felt pretty lucky that night. 

I was headed to the airport in St Paul MN with a Hertz rental and without a whole lot of extra time.  Turned out of the parking lot onto the highway and had a flat in about a quarter mile.  I couldn't get the lugnuts free with the toy wrench in the trunk.  Called Hertz and they were no help - told me to try AAA.  Guy in a pickup pulls up behind me, grabs a jack and an impact out of the truck toolbox and and changes the tire for me in about 5 minutes.  I gave him the thirty bucks I had in my wallet and suggested he have lunch and a couple of beers, plus a big thanks.

I was feeling pretty lucky that day.

I rolled up to a gas station with my race car on the trailer behind me and saw an old (but nice!) bug with the hood open and two guys staring at me. They were on their way towards me before I was even out of my car. It turned out that they had borrowed the old bug and that it had been running worse and worse since they left 2h ago. They had 3 more hours to go and were contemplating calling for a tow truck, since their combined car knowledge was nada, zip and nothing. My first thought was: "You probably ran it low on gas, you dumbasses, and now the carb is full of old fuel tank gunk". But when they fired it up, it sounded much more like a timing issue. Backfiring, spitting, missing... 

A quick check showed that the distributor was loose. I didn't have a timing light, but by ear and short test drives around the building, we got it to run just fine. They offered to pay for my fuel, but since I was filling up the race car and 3 jugs x 20l with high octane, I told them I'd settle for an icecream and a bottle of water. 

You become the good Samaritan in the story, good thing you are always ready.  I think that it's not you who is lucky but it's more like him since he needs your help. 

The one and only time I had a service call to fix a flat the driver didn’t have the right size socket for my lugs (17 mm).   Boo.  

John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:

I guess this makes you a super hero and your power is "tools and auto repair"

At least it is more useful than, say, the ability to rapidly grow fingernails.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

If I had Peter's power, I'd also spend my time as a T-Rex.

One time my brother bought a g60 powered MkI Jetta coupe that blew up ten minutes after buying it. We flat towed it home and even though we had brought a bunch of spare tires with us we blew out 6 tires! The first four that had come with the car delaminated and two of my spares wore through due to the horrible alignment. There was a Walmart who had a set of 13" tires to fit on the shelf and aligned it at 8:45 for us. What luck.

I like how he's the luckiest man in Jacksonville because he got to meet you. 

This was probably 30 years ago at this point. My dad used to work with a lady who lived out in Kansas City and her car broke down on the side of the highway one night. She was able to pull over to the side and someone stopped to help her. It turned out to be Bo Jackson himself. She asked him why he stopped to help and his answer was that he had three sisters and hope someone would stop if they were in that situation.

I've never seen your house, but most of us have a sense of how many projects you have and how much stuff you've dragged home. 
 

I suspect your house is a clue to all the neighbors of just who they should ask for a lug wrench.