At McBride’s Service Station in Chemainus, the staff goes to great lengths to serve its customers.
In one case last week, Matt Myers of McBride’s literally had to extend himself to the limit to help Keeley Morey.
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Nothing was out of the ordinary for Morey at first while doing her part with the cleaning company she works for at the Western Forest Products Chemainus sawmill.
“Part of my job is I go around the mill and disinfect everything,” she explained. “We’ve been there doing disinfecting and keeping them running basically with COVID going on.”
All that hard work for the cause should have meant Morey would be rewarded with good things, but then the unexpected happened. She was walking out to her car at work and dropped her only set of keys down a 15-foot storm drain.
“I pulled them out of my pocket, they fell out of my hand and right down the storm drain,” Morey explained.
She called her husband and then McBride’s, only to discover news she didn’t want to hear. It was determined she’d need to get the car towed to a Mazda dealership in Nanaimo to have a new key made.
That would have resulted in an $800 bill and brought a distraught Morey to tears.
But then Myers thought there was something else he might be able to do after arriving on the scene.
“I had the car on the (tow) deck and she goes, ‘I just dropped them (the keys) down the drain,” he indicated. “I said I could probably get those out for you.”
Without hesitation, Myers said he was going to get those keys out come hell or high storm drain water and he wasn’t leaving until the mission was accomplished.
“I took a look and the bar for unlocking cars I fished around in the drain and got the keys out.”
With the full extension of his arm and the length of the bar, Myers was barely able to reach them.
The key factor was having a carabiner, a specialized type of shackle for those in the dark about the term, with a metal loop and a spring-loaded gate used to connect components.
“I always keep my keys on a carabiner and then I can clip them to stuff,” Morey said.
It took maybe four or five tries and about 15 minutes for Myers to hook the carabiner with the bar to pull them up.
“If she didn’t have the carabiner, there’s a slim chance,” he said.
“He only charged the tow fee as he had to for his work but he did not charge me for his time,” an eternally grateful Morey praised.
That obviously made her day and Myers was simply happy he could find a solution.
For Morey, this is how you spelled R-E-L-I-E-F.
“It’s been a long few weeks with COVID and trying to keep afloat,” she admitted.