MAN: I think the most - the weirdest experience I've ever had was about ten years ago. No, 'weirdest' is not really the right word. 'Baffling'? 'Staggering'? 'Terrifying'? All those things, but... Well, let me tell you what happened. I was driving home at about nine late one evening from doing some business in the north. It was a typical late November night. Very cold, with occasional patches of mist, but generally quite a clear night. I was about two miles from the village where we live when I spotted a hitchhiker about 200 metres ahead on my side of the road. I was going to drive on past, because I never stop for hitchhikers - especially after that terrible mugging case a few years ago. But when I got closer, I realised that it was a man from our village - in fact, an acquaintance of ours: his wife was friendly with my wife, although I didn't know him at all well, apart from saying 'Good morning' occasionally. And I knew his name was John. But that's all. Anyway, I stopped and he got in. He told me that his car had broken down outside Winchester - he'd also been on his way back from business. He'd left his car at a garage and had got a lift the 20 miles to the point where I had picked him up. That was all he said, as far as I remember, and I didn't press him further. I dropped him at the end of his road in the village, drove on home and went straight to bed. The following morning, about half past eight, there was a telephone call which my wife took. It was John's wife - the John I had given a lift to. She was in a terrible state and asked if my wife could go over and stay with her for a few hours. She had just heard that her husband had been killed in a multiple car crash near Winchester at about 6.30 the evening before. I'd picked John up on the road two and a half hours after that.