Worst Nightmare Realized: Car Keys Down A Manhole

Cover Image
Photo credit Laura M. Browning's friends came to her rescue when her keys went into a manhole grate. (@ellembee/Twitter)

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Think about this the next time you park your car over a manhole.

WBBM's Steve Miller has the story.

It was supposed to be a quick stop at a grocery store in Evanston Sunday night. In and out. Back to the car.

"I put my stuff inside. I dropped the keys, and they just went directly down the grate. I'd parked right on top of a manhole cover,” Laura M. Browning tells WBBM Newsradio.

The Edgewater resident called 9-1-1.

"They basically said, 'There's nothing we can do to help you because the Streets and San Department needs to come out, and they're not open on Sunday night. Good luck.'"

Here's @karenkerrr with the manhole cover and her hero roommate who fished the keys out with a rope, a stick, and a wire hanger. pic.twitter.com/r2xmgAkeob

— Laura M. Browning ------ please get your flu shot (@ellembee) November 4, 2019

So she called her friends.  And they used a coat hanger, a stick, an ice scraper and a rope.

"And my friend Karen and I both lift heavy. We just had this moment where we looked at each other, and we were like, 'This is our moment.'"

And off it came. The keys were finally snagged, after a total of about an hour and a half.

So, what’s the lesson in all of this? 

"Put your keys in your pocket and lift weights, I guess.  I don't know."