PLEASE can I warn readers about an awful incident which happened to us at the weekend.

After arriving at a fairly quiet Welsh seaside town, we parked in a secluded lane and prepared to take our three dogs on a lovely walk along the beach.

A split seconds muddle with leads, coats etc and we realised we had inadvertently locked the keys in the car with the dogs and all the windows now shut. Luckily we had our mobiles, though reception was poor.

We phoned the car manufacturers assistance service and was told that it was out of hours but someone would get back to us within 15 to 20 minutes.

Half an hour later in desperation, I phoned the police for advice, they said we must chase up our roadside assistance which we did. They said they were still trying to locate a technician.

Then the sun came out.

We found a large rock and decided to break the window. The toughened glass was impervious how ever hard my husband bashed it. A young couple came walking down the lane and kindly stopped to help.

She rushed back to their caravan for some tools as the young man continued to try and break the glass. Nothing he had worked. Another couple in a car stopped and they also tried with what they had to break the window.

Eventually my husband managed to find a maintenance man on a nearby campsite with a hammer. Hooray, the glass smashed! One of our good Samaritans managed to reach the keys and we could at last get the dogs out the car, panting but otherwise ok. Total time locked in – about an hour.

We cannot thank these kind people enough for their efforts.

For without the kindness of total strangers, or if we had parked in an even more remote destination, we may have been in the unenviable position of watching our beloved pets die while we were powerless to do anything about it. What if it had been a child?

We can put a man on the moon but there appears to be no codes, pin numbers, or other technology which can open your car if you are stupid enough to lock your keys in it, at least any sort of reasonable time frame.

Also by trying to protect our precious lumps of steak from theft we have made them almost impossible to break into (or on occasion out of) in an emergency.

Please, please take care not to put yourselves, your children, or your pets in this awful predicament.

Susan Clarke Stourbridge