A FEW weeks back I wrote an article on how people somehow found themselves locked out, and sometimes even locked in their property or vehicle and it seems as though just about everyone has had a similar experience of some sort.

Elaine, from Shettleston, told me how she recently found herself locked out of her car when she returned to it after doing her weekly shop at Tesco.

“I pressed and pressed the key fob until I finally realised that the battery in the fob must have died,” she explained.

“So, having no other choice, reluctantly I called my husband Andy at work to come and rescue me and the bags of food with the spare car key.”

Elaine seemed to be in a bit of a panic because she had carrier bags crammed with frozen food including ice cream.

“An hour later, red faced with steam coming out of his ears Andy arrived with my spare key," she added.

“He stared at the car, pressed the key fob which sounded somewhere behind me and without saying a word glowered, pointed behind me, shook his head and stormed off.”

Apparently Elaine had been trying in vain to get in to someone else’s car two rows in front of hers which her husband immediately spotted before turning on his heels and speeding off back to work.

Mary, from Coatbridge, found herself in a tricky situation one Sunday morning a few years back.

“Finding myself with some spare time, I decided to do a bit of gardening and thought it made sense just to do it in my pyjamas rather than changing clothes twice.”

This sounded like a sensible idea to me until she added: “A wee while into it, Barry, my husband waved goodbye through the patio doors before locking them behind him and heading off to church.”

According to Mary, Barry wrongly assumed she had gone out the side door of the house and could get back in whenever she needed.

“My mobile was in the house too so I had no way of contacting anyone.”

Mary explained that she waited three long hours in the back garden going in and out of the greenhouse when it rained before deciding to take drastic action.

“I had no choice but to walk a quarter of a mile to my friends’ house with no makeup on, my greasy hair tied in a bun and my red and white striped pyjamas tucked into a pair of wellies.”

I could feel my face getting red even thinking about Mary’s walk of shame.

“I must have looked like a manky escaped convict.”

Susan, from Hamilton, spilled the beans on her fiancé Mark for mistakenly locking her inside their first floor tenement flat a number of years back.

“The bright spark left for a work trip to London at 6am," she said.

“It wasn’t until I was showered and dressed for a day out for lunch with my friends that I noticed on reaching the front door of the flat that my set of keys were missing.”

Finding herself a prisoner in her own home, Susan had to rely on the generosity and loyalty of her lunch date buddies.

“My friends pulled together and gathered supplies which were the right size to post through my letter box.”

I wondered what was coming next.

“Cigarettes, newspapers, chocolate," she said.

“They even slotted pizza slices with napkins through the letterbox.”

What good pals I thought to myself. She continued: “They even set up camp with folding seats outside my door whilst posting me miniatures of wine until they realised there was a nice warm pub down the road and deserted me.”

However, the tale that tickled me most was from Willie Donaldson, from Linwood.

According to Willie, a guy called Rab Marshall who lived in Queenslie found himself locked in the top flat he and his wife live in which was in a close of six.

Apparently Rab, who was a colourful character and liked a wee sherbet or two, was lying in bed one morning a bit worse for wear after a late night bevy session and was suddenly woken by his loyal collie dug Sheba who was barking her head off to inform Rab that she needed out to do her business.

However, when Rab reached the front door to let Sheba out he soon realised that his wife had gone to work and locked him and his dug in with no keys.

Sheba was desperate, and so was Rab, so he then got the long clothes rope used for the washing line, tied it carefully around poor Sheba and slowly lowered her down through the back window to the courtyard to do her business.

Rab then hoisted Sheba back up to the flat, untied her and went back to bed!