Cellular Phone Saves Family From Carwash

Add a new one to the list of rescues made possible by cellular phones. But these victims weren’t lost in the woods or teetering on a precipice - they were trapped in a carwash.

The sudsy saga began when Diedre Finley, accompanied by her two youngsters, drove the family car into an automatic carwash at a local BP service station. Doors at both ends of the carwash dropped shut and locked - a move intended to keep pipes from freezing in winter.

As the suds and water began to flow and the brushes snapped into place, Finley says, she and 5-year-old Beau and 3-year-old Leah waited for the automatic track to move the car forward.

Nothing happened.

“Leah just got over this horrifying fear of carwashes,” said Finley. “Her eyes were all round and I’m honking and honking and honking.”

But the gas-station attendants couldn’t hear her.

Eventually she picked up her cellular phone, got the station’s number from directory assistance and called the attendants a few steps away.

“And I’m yelling, because you can hardly hear over the roar,” Finley said.

For a while, the attendants couldn’t get the doors open either. Tension was mounting. Inside the car, Finley’s kids - “no doubt influenced by the deluge” - reported they needed to go to the restroom.

After about 20 minutes, station employees got inside the carwash and motioned her to back up her car, which tripped the door-opening mechanism.

“The attendant is shouting, ‘You’re free! You’re free!’ I was pretty embarrassed,” Finley said.

“It was a jungle in there,” Finley said of the man-made maelstrom. And the car “is still filthy.”