Missing keys and amazing luck

This is the story of lost keys and a touch of serendipity and good fortune.

Lee Pegrum explains: “Every year we venture to the beach for New Year, and this one will certainly be memorable, one with lots of coincidences and a few morals to the story.

“After a long walk on Camber beach, we arrived back at the car in the darkness. You know that feeling you get when you can’t find your car keys, your stomach churns and you feel kind of sick? Well, we certainly had that. Ian was strip-searched for the keys with no luck. The outside of the car was searched with the very low battery on our phones, but no luck. Ian returned to the café we visited to see if they had any keys handed in and no luck.

“Meanwhile I called our breakdown recovery who were very sympathetic but could not help and said it would cost £600 for recovery! Plan B, call brother Chris to the rescue to make an epic journey from Tunbridge Wells to Oxted to collect the spare key then to Camber and back.

“By now it was getting pretty cold in the deserted car park and we had to resort to the warmth of the Dune pub a short walk away. I said to the bartender, ‘We really are in need of a drink as we’ve just lost our car keys!’

“Coincidence Number One: a lady sitting by the bar said she had just seen someone post on Camber’s Facebook page that keys had been found on the beach early that afternoon. She read the message which said they had been handed into the beach café.

“Coincidence Number Two: the owner of the beach café happened to be drinking in the pub as he was attending a birthday celebration. He called his son, who went back to the beach café, got the keys, and offered to bring them to the pub. But would they be our keys? He said that they were Audi keys and had five other keys on the fob. Please, please, please let them be ours. Meanwhile, brother Chris was put on hold at the side of the road awaiting what we hoped would be good news.

“The sand-dusted keys arrived and they were for the Audi; all the pub cheered!
The original finder who posted on Facebook was asked to call at the pub so that Ian could thank him. He called and a very grateful Ian let him know how happy he was, and that a drink would be left at the bar for him and his wife.

“Now for the test. Would the keys still work having suffered the afternoon on a sandy beach? Yes, – huge relief and we were on our way home, earlier than expected and very grateful. How did it happen? The keys must have fallen out of Ian’s pocket as he bent over to pick up a shell from the beach. Keep in mind how huge Camber beach is and that finding a set of keys is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack: it was indeed a miracle. They had been there for over two hours and the high tide was at 8 pm, so we were just lucky that the tide wasn’t fully in.

“The morals of the story…
Always go to the pub to pour out your sorrows; someone might overhear and help.
The power of Facebook can be amazing.
Zip up your pockets.
Keep your phone charged.

“Off to buy an AirTag or two, or three, and thank you Chris for almost coming to our rescue.”

Image Credits: Kt bruce .