'It was terrifying': Sask. women attacked after stopping to help strangers near Clavet

Kristen Alm says she may never stop to help a stranger on the highway ever again.

It was just before 3 a.m. Saturday when the woman and her friend left Saskatoon, heading east on Highway 16 towards her home in Allan. They noticed a rolled-over SUV near Clavet and saw a group of people waving for help, Alm said.

“I put one foot out of the car and I was pulled out, pushed down, kicked and I couldn’t quite believe it. I thought maybe it was an accident or a joke.”

She said she was attacked two more times before she heard her friend scream.

“She had a gun pointed at her head. They were trying to take her cellphone and her wallet. She was pleading with them that she has little kids,” Alm said.

Instead, she said the robbers took her friend’s car, screeching away toward Clavet. Alm was on the phone with police when she noticed the car turn around and head back towards them.

The women ran into the ditch, making sure to stay close to a fence.

“I was just terrified thinking ‘they’re coming back! They’re coming back!’ And my friend, she was thinking in her head at that time that they know we’ve seen them, they’re going to come back and they’re going to shoot us,” Alm recalled.

But she said the car drove past them because they were hiding as still as they could under some bushes.

The women eventually made it to Clavet and sought refuge in the motel, Alm said.

Although an RCMP news release stated the women were not injured, Alm said she has two fractured ribs, a contusion on her knee and a scratched-up leg. Her friend has a concussion from hitting her head on the pavement, she said.

Five people, including three teens, face 33 charges in connection to the carjacking. The group is also accused in two armed robberies near Clavet before rolling their SUV, which police said was stolen.

They were arrested in North Battleford following a police chase.
 
Alm said she has stopped to help people stranded on the side of the road in the past. Now, she’ll think twice.

“I think that I would just call 911 and tell them what I’ve seen and keep on going,” she said, adding it’s a sad reality.

“Nobody wants to feel that you can’t help somebody.”