Good Samaritan's car stolen while he helped man with broken down car

HOUSTON – A good Samaritan who stopped to help a motorist in trouble lost his own car when that motorist turned out to be a car thief. 

It happened Sunday morning in Memorial Park.

Gary Shershion, 65 was at the park to play tennis with friends. As he was leaving, he noticed a car stalled at a traffic circle near the park’s tennis center. 

“I told him we could probably push it out of the way so people could get by. He agreed. I started pushing the car,” Shershion said. 

When several other men stopped to help push the car, the motorist suggested to Shershion that they trade places. 

“He suggested I steer and let him push, by that time a couple more people came over to help push it away, so we had plenty of help,” Shershion said. 

But that’s when he learned he’d been conned. 

“The car stopped, I turned back to look, and my car is going up the road. He’d ran back and jumped in mine," he said

The thief drove off in Shershion's black 2017 Toyota Camry and left the broken down Nissan he’d been driving behind. It turned out the Nissan had been stolen from another man, at gunpoint, a few hours earlier. 

Shershion not only lost his car, but also his credit cards and a pistol that were in the car. The pistol bothers him most, as he’s afraid the crook might use it to hurt someone. 

After what happened, he isn’t sure he’d do the same thing again if he found another motorist in trouble. 

“I don’t know if I would stop helping people, but I would probably pick and choose who I tried to help if I found somebody in that situation,” he said.

Police are still looking for his missing car, and the pistol and credit cards that were in it. 

The car is a black 2017 Toyota Camry with the license plate number JTB-3754.

Houston Crimestoppers is offering a reward for information leading to an arrest.