Lost Keys (and how to find them)

Lost keys

We were leading a commercial group of about six novice laners, all were from different walks of life, a right mix. Within the group was the "Have all the gear, no idea", the perfect family with the brand new 110, the ordinary bloke on his own in a Disco, and a couple of quiet country gents in a basic 90. As with all commercial groups there was a general tendency to get on and do as many lanes as possible for their money. Often there is a little fiction between them all, but none as more as between the "Perfect family" and the others, this was mainly due to them been from the London area, having an expensive new truck, clothes etc and also not concerned with the pace. I can understand them having children, but they requested stops on every lane for photo shoots and the like, great for me having done it all before, but the others wanted value for money.

We were on the return leg of the last lane the Llyn Aled run, it was an October Sunday, late in the evening, getting dark and raining. Anyone who has been up there knows what dark is, it gets pitch black and quick. As usually drivers get tried, the Disco got bottomed out, no one bothered much, as usual everyone got out to watch the recovery ,which went well. All returned to their trucks looking forward to home, warmth and a meal. As I went past the couple with the 110 I heard the muttering, "you got them darling in the top pocket", "no" as he padded the rest of his jacket.

Yes they had lost there keys, but worst they had centrally locked the 110, the rest of the group look amazed then worried and looked to me for advice. I can deal with most things, but when someone loses there rag ,things go to pot. One of the gents in the 90 did just that, he was quiet all day, but they can be the worst. What he said was true, that in that in middle of a convoy, in the on a bleak mountain moor at 5.30 on a dark rainy night, no one's going to run up and drive off with your vehicle. That said, it was the way he did it, reducing the little girls to tears, problem was the mother as expected got protective and launched into a verbal rant on how hard they worked, sacrifices they had made size of their mortgage etc . It took a few minutes for the rest of us to calm things down and sort the problem out. I could see why he did, its habit, and I could understand that. However what I did like is how a group can came together and got on with solving the problem. After some discussion, breaking in and getting it started seems out of the question because of fancy pants electronics etc. Best bet was to find the keys. By now he was realised how they were lost, because his new Helly- Henson jacket had a hole to allow access to trouser pockets and was not a pocket in itself.

We started a inch by inch search just like the police do with bits of long reed grass not easy considering the lost of light, groase and the long grass. But quickly in a small area found nothing, then someone started to question him to as his movements. Its seemed he had walked along the centre of the lane, on the nice short grass the sheep had eaten in order not to get his feet muddy, however there was a few inches of muddy water in the ruts themselves. By now it was dark, the members of the group went back to there trucks to look for torches.

Suddenly the disco bloke had a bright idea, he remembered he had a metal detector in the back of his disco, still in the box! He had purchased it in an Adli sale on the previous Thursday for a Xmas present, but had yet to un load it. After undoing the packing and spending another 10 minutes looking for a 9volt battery, and reading the instructions in the dark, we got it going, and started searching over the water filled ruts. We found an alarming number of nails, bare wire, a shackle pin, and finally a set of 110 keys with fob.

All this happened a few years ago, but still laugh about it, the chain of events amazes us, the rare combination of who centrally locks their car up on a remote welsh moor and who carries a metal detector around with them.


Posted by Greenlaners at 08:59 0 comments