About six or seven years ago, a few friends and I were stuck in traffic in my friend’s SUV during the daytime. In the car next to us sat an elderly woman and a woman who looked to be around 35. The younger woman rolled down her window and motioned to speak with us. My friend lowered his window, and the woman said, “I’m feeling really dizzy, and my mother doesn’t know how to drive.

Could one of you please drive us to the nearest hospital? I think I might faint.” They looked completely normal—nothing seemed suspicious about them so we talked it over and considered helping. But when we got a closer look, we realized their car had a manual transmission, and none of us knew how to drive stick. So we had to apologize and move on, feeling bad that we couldn’t help.

Fast forward about three years: I was watching the news and saw a report about a new scam where seemingly harmless people often elderly would use similar tactics to lure strangers into their car. Once inside, the victims would be followed by accomplices and eventually robbed.

In the report, the suspects were an old man and a teenage boy not the same people we met but the resemblance in the setup was striking. Looking back, I can’t help but think we may have narrowly avoided a really bad situation.