A WOMAN from Launceston has extended grateful thanks to a local man who helped retrieve her 16-month-old baby from her locked car.

Letitia Gilbert had been shopping in town on Wednesday, December 20 with her young son, Tommy, when she found herself in a frightening predicament.

When loading her pram into the boot of her car, Letitia had left her keys on the car seat, which were in reaching distance of her 16-month-old son.

Tommy locked himself in the car, situated in Launceston’s multi-storey car park on Westgate Street, sending Letitia into a panic.

Tommy was locked in the vehicle for over an hour, and Letitia called the police for assistance. Originally suggesting smashing the window to retrieve the child, crews came to the conclusion that this wasn’t safe, so called Rocks Locks, based in the town, for any advice or assistance.

Letitia said: “The man helped me and kept me calm while keeping my baby calm, trying to retrieve my keys from off the car floor. After a while, he finally got them without doing any damage to my car. He didn’t charge me or anything, he was just generally concerned as I was.”

She told the Post: “I am so thankful for Ian in Rocks Locks being around that day and being able to help me because I don’t know what I would have done if it wasn’t for him.

“The police were just going to smash the window, but they didn’t feel it was safe to do so. So they rang Rocks Locks, explained what had happened. He came within minutes; it was possibly the best thing anyone had done for me all year. He was great and so supporting and caring — and he wasn’t going to give up, and made sure my baby and car came out in one piece.

“I really am so thankful. He made me feel so at ease, so thanks Rocks Locks.”

Ian Rocks, from Rocks Locks, explained that he was out on call at an ambulance station in North Devon at the time when he received a call from a Launceston PC.

He said: “I was told that a mother had left her keys in her car and that her baby had locked himself inside. I ran round and got my van and headed over.”

He said he had to ‘airbag the windows’ and that the tools he was using were around 2cm too short, meaning the task was undertaken in a longer amount of time than usual.

Ian said: “We have tools that we use to get into windows and doors and locks, but I didn’t want to damage the car or smash the window through. Eventually I was able to fish the keys out and open the door.

“The tools we use can pick doors, but in an Audi it is extremely difficult because of the glass and rubber.”

This was not the first time that Ian had been called out to an incident of this kind. He has also had to unlock vehicles at local schools, Tesco Launceston and the recycling centre.

He added: “People tend to give their keys to their kids to entertain them for a bit, but obviously this can go wrong. Just make sure you have a spare key of some kind, somewhere — in your bag, in your pocket — so if anything does happen like this, you can get into the vehicle.

“It’s Christmas — we generally don’t charge for incidents like this, because it’s not their fault. It’s just the service we provide.”