The Probe Incident

This week I thought I’d share some of the more comical moments from my time in the industry. One of the most embarrassing times involved the now deleted Ford Probe. It was my first company car as a Branch Manager. While I can look back now and see how it was little more than a phallic extension, at the time, it was my pride and joy. The office where I worked in Enfield had a car park at the rear, accessed via a really narrow drive between and around the back of a couple of shops. It was bad enough getting in, but exiting required a reversing manoeuvre that would have tested the skills of Jenson Button.
 
Over time I worked out that the best strategy was to lean out the driver’s window and look back, knowing if I kept the car close enough to my flank wall I couldn’t hit the opposite side wall. It had all the makings of a great plan.
 
On this particular occasion, I carried out this strategy but unwittingly and unknowingly leant my elbow on the automatic window closer. I’d like you picture the scene; my head out of the window looking backwards, the car going in reverse and the rising window about to lock me in from the neck upwards. You might wonder why didn’t I just move my elbow off the button? Good point, but in my panic, as I believed I was about to be guillotined by my own car window, I just couldn’t work out what was happening or what I’d done. It took a ridiculous amount of time for me to suss out the root of the problem and finally unhinge myself. It was a good few minutes more before my pulse rate returned to normal.
 
Now had the incident happened with no spectators, I would certainly never have told the story. Sadly two of my young staff happened to be walking around the back of the office at the time. To their eternal delight they witnessed the whole sorry event. Apart from it being the funniest thing either of them had ever seen, apparently they have never seen fear like it. The look that was etched on my face as I thought I was about to be decapitated was priceless.
 
Whenever I speak to them, at least ten years on, it still always gets a mention. Happy days!!!