A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to The Courthouse

A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to The Courthouse

Bordas & Bordas was in trial and I was in a hurry, trying to file a document that had to be hand-delivered to the judge and to our attorneys who were in trial. I was in a very big rush, and one of the clerks asked me a question. When I turned to answer her as I was stepping into the elevator, my car key slipped out of my hand and fell though the small opening at the bottom of the elevator and disappeared into the shaft below. The hole was only about an inch wide. "Oh My Stars!" I said. The clerk looked at me and said "Was that your phone that dropped down into the elevator shaft?" "No," I responded, "It was my car key." Even more unfortunately, it was a car key belonging to my husband's car, and he was out of town. She looked at me and said, "What are you going to do?" I told her "I'll worry about it later, but right now I have to get back upstairs and deliver these documents to the judge and the attorney from our office in trial."

The clerk was kind enough to call the building maintenance staff for me to get some help.  This is when my story got really interesting. First, I had to call my husband and ask him where the extra key was for  his car.  He reminded me that I had just dropped the extra key down the elevator shaft, as he had his own keys with him.  Things were really starting to look bad for me.  The maintenance gentleman told me it was a one in a million shot to retrieve my key.   He also said that they would have to call an elevator company out of Pittsburgh to come down to stop the elevator.

Things went from bad to worse.  I had to call AAA and have them call a tow truck company to unlock my car door for me so I could retrieve my purse from the trunk of the car.  I had to tell both the AAA lady and the tow truck driver what happened, and they both couldn't help but laugh at me.  If you have ever been in the Ohio County Court House, you know you have to go through the metal detector with the help of our very own Ohio County Sheriff's Department and some wonderful guards, who are there to make sure everyone who enters the court house isn't carrying anything that could harm others.   They all just couldn't help but laugh at me too.

I stood there waiting for someone to come and save me, and thank the good Lord above for my friend and co-worker Linda Scaggs, who came to save me from some of the embarrassment I'd caused myself. Of course while I was standing there waiting for her, what felt like every single person I knew in the tri-state area came through the elevator, and I had to tell my story to each and every one of them. Some of them were confused how I had achieved such a feat, because the crack in the elevator seemed so small! As I like to tease my friends, I told them that I just had to see if I could shove my key though the slit in the bottom of the elevator, to see if they would it fit and what would happen. Some of them just looked at me and thought I was crazy. Others who knew my sense of humor laughed with me (and at me, I'm sure).

When I told some of my friends at the court house what the maintenance man told me about needing to bring in help from Pittsburgh, they told me to call the county commissioner's office and have them contact the maintenance man to ask him to stop the elevator.  Apparently at that office, they have a stick that they've used before to retrieve things out of the elevator shaft.  They got my keys out!  I also had to ask for special permission from  the Wheeling Police Department, the Ohio County Sherriff's Office and our wonderful meter maids so I wouldn't be towed until I could finally rescue my car.  I can't thank them all enough for helping me out, and for keeping my husband's car from being towed, vandalized or ticketed.  You all rock!

I also can't thank everyone at the Ohio County Court House for their help in persuading the maintenance department to stop the elevator and use their stick to get my keys back. Thank you also to Jeff the maintenance man who did all this to get my key back for me.  I guess if the worst thing that came from all of this was that I'm now the butt of all the jokes at the Ohio County Court House, then I can live with that outcome!

The moral to this story is don't use your husband's car when he is out of town.  Lesson learned.  Until the next time, Rock on Wheeling West Virginia Rock on!