Kinda looks to be a real case and yet it could it be an April Fools joke - note the publication date. Not sure.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ng-police.html
But regardless of whether that particular story is true or not, similar events really do happen - being helpful can, and often does, backfire badly with the good samaritan being treated as a criminal.
Furthermore, many people avoid getting involved due to the fear of getting caught up in a criminal / civil case, such as being subpoenaed as a witness and losing time from work...
Some may think taking a few hours off from work for court is no biggie - but that's not how it works in many places, such as the city of Philadelphia (they're working to streamline things, so it may get better, but still) ... often one spends much of the day waiting for the case to be called, and then often someone doesn't show up or whatever, and the person then has to come back again, and possibly even more many times, losing even more time from work. And then there are issues of intimidation and lack of regard of witnesses and good samaritans by the court system.
There are many instances, of course, where it works out fine, but very often the layperson has no way of knowing how things will turn out until it's too late so many people avoid getting involved to begin with to avoid getting caught up in a quagmire.
Ron