Obligatory "this didn't happen today but a few years ago"

My then-girlfriend (now wife) and I were happily cruising down the highway when another car passed us on the left. I was driving and I happened to look over to the car passing us and I couldn't really register what I was seeing. So I told my girlfriend;

"Euhm honey, I think the front passenger is tied to his seat with duct tape..."

Knowing me she went "suuuuure mate" but as I was pretty convinced what I saw I gave it a bit of gas and we pulled back up next to the other car.

And we both clearly saw an older man, wrapped in cellophane and it looked like he was tied to his seat with a large amount of duct tape.

Our initial reaction was a sincere and powerful "What. The. Fuck.". And we quickly decided there was a good chance this guy was not in that position by choice. I mean, who enjoys being duct-taped to a seat covered in cellophane, right?

what do now?

We considered trying to stop the other car, but that would be a massively stupid idea. So we called the police, who of course took it very seriously very quickly. After relaying where we were driving and the details of the other car and both occupants (the elderly taped up guy and a younger adult male driving) we took our exit. Afterwards I did feel that was really an asshole move on our part, we should have stayed with them until the police were there. In our meager defense we were driving to the notary to sign for our new house and the police did assure us that a patrol car was almost there, but looking back we could have gotten to the appointment a bit later to make sure help actually arrived for this poor poor man in that horrible situation. But alas.. We took our exit, signed for our house and during the trip back we talked about what the fuck just happened and we wondered how it had ended.

And around that time the police called!

I got suspicious/relieved when I heard that the officer on the other end of the line was sounding quite amused. He told me that the patrol car wasn't able to locate them on the highway (which made me feel like even a bigger asshole about taking that exit) but they did go to the address the license plate was registered to where they found the car in the driveway. They went up to house, rang the bell and the alleged driver of the car opened the door. The younger adult male. Who was the son of the older gentleman. The older gentleman who apparantly has a rare skin disorder which requires periodic treatment and part of this treatment is being wrapped in some sort medical cellophane using bandages that look like duct tape. According to the police they were invited into the house where they confirmed the story and met with this very surprised father :') In the end all was well, the police and us had a good laugh about it, we did apologize profusely for tying up precious resources because we were dumbasses and that was it.

I realize this is not a huge FU, but for some reason I remembered this today and thought it to be a unique enough story to be posted here. :)

TL;DR Thought we saw a kidnapped guy in a car, wrapped in cellophane and tied to his seat. Called the police and it turned out it was just someone coming back from treatment for a rare skin disease