Viewers come to good Samaritan’s aid after she’s robbed while helping crash victims

A good Samaritan, robbed while saving others, is more than repaid by generous supporters.

Peggy Ray, 39, was just trying to help.

The Washington mother of six was driving along Interstate 5 near the Seattle suburb of Everett, Washington, when she witnessed a terrifying car crash. She pulled over, left her vehicle's doors open, and ran toward the partially submerged vehicle.

"I was thinking it was going to catch fire. I was thinking we have to get those people out," she told KOMO News. "I would do it again tomorrow, in a year. I would do it again."

Ray crawled through a broken window in the wrecked car to keep the bleeding driver and his passenger stabilized until firefighters arrived.

When the good Samaritan finally returned to her own vehicle, she discovered that she'd been robbed. Nine hundred dollars had been taken from her purse.

"I don't normally have that much cash," Ray of Marysville, Wash., told ABCnews.com, "but I was going to pay the rent."

"It hurts right here, but I'm not going to be angry about it," she told KOMO News. "I'm not going to hold a grudge."

After KOMO News' Problem Solvers told Ray's story, viewers called the station, offering to help her. Donations started pouring in.

This week, Problem Solvers presented Ray with a cheque for nearly $3,800 of viewer-donated money.

The Everett Firefighters Association and Everett Firefighters Local 46 also pledged to give Ray $750. The Lynnwood Police Officers Association gave Ray $350.

"I told you that's why you don't stop helping people. You don't stop helping. You don't stop giving," Ray said, adding that she and her husband will use the kind donation to pay their rent, buy Christmas gifts and donate to others. "You just do what you can, 100 per cent of the time...and look what happens."

"She has done so much over the years for individuals and organizations, and that's one of the reasons that we are blown away by the response," Ray's husband, Nathan, told the Herald. "It's one of those things where you give and receive with both hands."

"The question I keep getting is, would I do it again? Absolutely," she told ABC News. "Only, I would lock my doors first."