Once upon a time we delivered a van full of composted leaves to Mary’s Vassar Farms garden plot in the evening.
There’s a gate at the entrance that was half-closed, but Mary’s never seen it closed & locked, so we drove in and parked by the plot to toss bags. We were done in about 15 minutes, drove back to the gate, and found the Vassar security folks had locked it… with the van in plain sight.
My guess is that they were busting our chops, but one should never ascribe to malice what can be explained by stupidity.
We had a phone, but none of the bystanders knew what number to call. The ladies reported that the other gate was also locked. A chain-link fence surrounds the plots.
What to do?
The gate hinges were plain old 1″ bolts and nuts, so I figured I could just dismount a gate, drive out, then put the gate back in place. Non-destructive and easy to explain if The Man arrives while I’m at work. Plan B was to just cut the padlocked chain holding the gates together.
The back of the van has a small “tool” compartment for the jack and suchlike. I long ago added a multi-bit screwdriver set, a medium adjustable wrench (not quite big enough for a 1″ bolt, alas), a Vise-Grip, and similar odds & ends.
Fortunately, it turned out that the chain around the middle of the gates had two links held together with a 1/4-20 bolt and two nuts. I suspect this sort of thing has happened before, perhaps to someone else with a Vise-Grip.
Five minutes later, we were outside, the gate was closed & locked, and the tools were back in place.
Memo to self: add a bigger wrench.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 