Man trapped in bowling club toilet for four days
By Sally Peck and agencies
Last Updated: 3:46pm GMT 10/12/2007
A retired teacher survived on tap water after getting trapped in a freezing bowling club toilet with no food or mobile phone for four days.
David Leggat was trapped at Kittybrewster and Woodside Bowling Club after the door to the gents jammed behind him.
How about that: Weird news from around the world
The 55-year-old spent 16 hours of each day in darkness and, in a desperate bid to keep warm in the freezing building, he dipped his feet in hot water.
"I did a survival course once and knew I had to keep my feet warm, so I kept running a basin of hot water and putting my feet in, to send the heat through my body," he explained to the Aberdeen Evening Express.
Mr Leggat was eventually freed after Cathy Scollay, the club's cleaner, heard his cries for help.
Mr Leggat's ordeal began last Monday afternoon when he entered the bathroom and the inside handle to the door jammed. A few days earlier the outside handle had fallen off.
The bowler said he quickly realised he was in for a long wait as the club is rarely used in winter.
Mr Leggat, who recently retired from Kemnay Academy, where he taught English and history, said: "I was lucky to get three hours' sleep a night."
Ms Scollay, who keeps her cleaning equipment in the gents, discovered Mr Leggat on Thursday morning.
She said today: "I put on the light as normal, pushed the door and just heard a voice shouting 'you can't get in here, I have been locked in here for four days'. I just couldn't believe it."
Ms Scollay could not manage to free Mr Leggat, so she called club secretary Bob Ewing, who used a screwdriver to open the door.
"David looked awfully grey and shaky when he came out," Ms Scollay said.
"But he managed to walk up the road to his house."
"Nobody had been looking for David. A wife may have wondered where he was but he is not married," she said.
Mr Leggat told the Evening Express: "At least there was a toilet to use. The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar."
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Why did not he break the door?
By Sally Peck and agencies
Last Updated: 3:46pm GMT 10/12/2007
A retired teacher survived on tap water after getting trapped in a freezing bowling club toilet with no food or mobile phone for four days.
David Leggat was trapped at Kittybrewster and Woodside Bowling Club after the door to the gents jammed behind him.
How about that: Weird news from around the world
The 55-year-old spent 16 hours of each day in darkness and, in a desperate bid to keep warm in the freezing building, he dipped his feet in hot water.
"I did a survival course once and knew I had to keep my feet warm, so I kept running a basin of hot water and putting my feet in, to send the heat through my body," he explained to the Aberdeen Evening Express.
Mr Leggat was eventually freed after Cathy Scollay, the club's cleaner, heard his cries for help.
Mr Leggat's ordeal began last Monday afternoon when he entered the bathroom and the inside handle to the door jammed. A few days earlier the outside handle had fallen off.
The bowler said he quickly realised he was in for a long wait as the club is rarely used in winter.
Mr Leggat, who recently retired from Kemnay Academy, where he taught English and history, said: "I was lucky to get three hours' sleep a night."
Ms Scollay, who keeps her cleaning equipment in the gents, discovered Mr Leggat on Thursday morning.
She said today: "I put on the light as normal, pushed the door and just heard a voice shouting 'you can't get in here, I have been locked in here for four days'. I just couldn't believe it."
Ms Scollay could not manage to free Mr Leggat, so she called club secretary Bob Ewing, who used a screwdriver to open the door.
"David looked awfully grey and shaky when he came out," Ms Scollay said.
"But he managed to walk up the road to his house."
"Nobody had been looking for David. A wife may have wondered where he was but he is not married," she said.
Mr Leggat told the Evening Express: "At least there was a toilet to use. The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar."
------
Why did not he break the door?
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