Man plays dead at I-40 exit waiting for good Samaritan — then stabs him, NC cops say

A good Samaritan was hospitalized with a stab wound Monday, after police said he made the mistake of checking on a person lying near an Interstate 40 exit in North Carolina whom he presumed dead.

The “corpse” was actually very much alive and the man tried to rob the well-intentioned motorist, the Asheville Police Department said in a news release.

It happened around 9 p.m. Monday at the Exit 47 ramp, officials said, near Brevard Road in west Asheville.

The injured driver — who was not identified — survived, police said.

“The victim was stopped in their vehicle on the exit ramp when they saw a person not moving on the side of the road. The victim rolled down their vehicle window to see if the person needed help, and they did not respond,” police said in the release.

“The victim got out of their car to go and see if they could provide help. When he got close, the suspect demanded his wallet, and when he refused stabbed him in the leg and ran toward the wooded area,” officials said.

The suspect escaped and the motorist drove to a nearby veterans hospital for treatment of “non-life threatening injuries,” police said.

Asheville police are seeking help from the public to find the suspect, described as a 6-foot, 180-pound white man with a beard and shoulder-length light brown hair. Tips can be offered at 828-252-1110, police said.

Interstate 40 crosses the entirety of North Carolina, from the Great Smoky Mountains in the west to Wilmington on the coast.

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Man plays dead at I-40 exit waiting for good Samaritan — then stabs him, NC cops say."