Rescuers arrested, then vindicated.(The Goodness Of America)

In September of last year, a bizarre combination of cultural stereotyping, language barriers and flawed eyewitness testimony led to the jailing of three Seattle, Washington, teenagers who had sought to render assistance to a mugging victim.

The saga began September 1 in Seattle's Chinatown-International District. An elderly Chinese woman who had been shopping was walking with a friend when a man ran up and grabbed the gold necklaces she was wearing, causing both her packages and the jade-like beads from her necklaces to scatter on the ground. According to a police report, the necklaces were valued at more than $1,000.

Three 18-year-olds--Ken Woo, Yi Ming Lin and Rico Ford--heard the woman's cries for help and saw the thief running away. Lin and Woo are seniors at Rainier Beach High School in Seattle, and Ford recently graduated from the school.

Without hesitating, the three youths rushed to help the victim. While Lin and Ford retrieved packages and beads from the sidewalk, Woo chased the mugger but was unable to catch up with him.

Though the frightened woman did not speak English, Lin, who speaks Mandarin Chinese, was able to understand her. Ford recalls that she bowed to him and said "xie xie," apparently a gesture of thanks.

Concluding that the woman had not been seriously injured, the three Good Samaritans left, but returned moments later in Lin's car to again make sure that she was okay. When Lin urged her to call the police should anything else happen, she nodded and again uttered, "xie xie."

A postal employee who witnessed only part of the incident unfortunately misconstrued the situation, wrongly concluding that the teens had accosted the elderly woman. When questioned by police, he claimed that Woo and Lin had surrounded her while Ford sought to take her necklaces. The witness followed the trio, noted the license number of Lin's car as they drove away, and called 911.