"I thought I’d seen it all – and I did!"

As an AA Patrol you have to be prepared to encounter all types of scenarios – some of which can be rather unpleasant. But at the same time, you can also come across some very funny situations too.

A few weeks ago a job came through that really caught my eye – in fact, I did a double take. A member with a 4x4 had locked his keys in the vehicle. Nothing unusual about that, it happens all the time. What made this job different was its location. For the car, and of course the owner, were in a naturist club in Buckinghamshire.

Our operational centre called me to make sure I was ok with the job, and naturally I became the butt (sorry, I couldn’t resist that one) of a few jokes. However, I must admit that I wasn’t totally prepared for what happened when I got there.

I was met by the owner of the 4x4, who was wearing just a shirt and carrying a tennis racket. He told me that the keys were in his wife’s handbag, which was in the passenger foot-well. I had a good look for myself and luckily the handbag was open so I could see the keys sitting on top. This meant that I could fish the keys out with a piece of wire. However, because the car was deadlocked it took me a good 40 minutes to ease the door open enough to make space for the wire to go through. All this time I could see the in the car window the reflection of a crowd of naked people who’d come to watch! That really made me concentrate on the job I can tell you.

A good sense of humour helps in this job. Even so, after the guy had thanked me and went off to finish his game of tennis, I did manage to resist shouting out “new balls please”.

Mike Giddens, AA Patrol