The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Black pudding helps get butcher off the hook after he gets trapped in freezer
70-year-old uses frozen fry-up favourite to batter his way to freedom
A butcher just minutes from death after getting stuck in a freezer saved his own life by battering his way out – with a frozen black pudding.
Quick-thinking Chris McCabe, 70, thought he was going to die after he got locked in his own walk-in fridge which stores meat at temperatures of -20C.
But with time running out in the freezer, which is capable of killing a man in just half an hour, he grabbed the only tool he could find – a black pudding.
He battered the lock with the frozen breakfast staple and it eventually gave way and he walked free.
Mr McCabe said the Scottish black pudding – made by the Queen’s butcher HM Sheridan of Ballater – saved his life.
The father-of-four said: “No one could hear me banging because it is outside, round the back of the shop.
“The black pudding was the best thing to hit the button with because it was the right shape.
“I used it like the police use battering rams to break door locks in, that’s what I did with the black pudding.
“It was solid, pointed and I could get plenty of weight behind it. I’m lucky really, we sell about two or three each week and that was the last one in there.”
Mr McCabe, from Totnes, Devon, said the winds had blown the door shut after he went in and to his horror the inner door release button had frozen solid.
He frantically looked around for something to save him – but couldn’t find anything to de-ice the emergency release.
The lamb was too big and the beef did not afford enough grip, and Mr McCabe said he had all but given up hope until he spotted his last black pudding.
The fried breakfast favourite was the perfect size, weight and most importantly diameter.
Mr McCabe wielded the 1.5kg stick of blood sausage and gave the green door-release button a whack before being freed on the third attempt.
He said: “I had rushed in, I was in a hurry as usual and I heard the door shut behind me, I thought that was OK because I could kick the safety button from inside.
“I’ve been shut in before and I used the button to get out then, but this time it was frozen solid.”