KEY POINTS:
"Please get help."
That was the muffled and anguished plea from two women trapped inside a Tauranga lift, to two boys who are now being called heroes.
Tyler Jones, 13, and James Kira, 12, happened to hear an alarm bell in the lift at the Spring St car park building about 4pm on Saturday, set off by the doors refusing to open.
Fearing somebody may be stuck inside, the boys banged on the door and heard the women, Gail Plimmer, 64, and her mother Ngia Bankhead, 88, cry for help. They went to raise the alarm, and then spent more than an hour reassuring and comforting the women while workmen tried to free them.
"We just thought we'd keep them company and make sure they were okay," Tyler told the Bay of Plenty Times.
He thought being stuck in a lift would be "not very fun and very uncomfortable" and said the two women were "panicking".
James said, except for an older man who stopped to see what was going on, "most people just walked past". The boys did not feel they had done anything exceptional but have been praised by their grateful victims and the police plan to award them with special community service certificates.
Mrs Plimmer and her mother had just finished a weekly shopping and movies ritual when they became stuck.
The pair stepped into the ground floor carpark lift and pressed the button to get to the second floor. The lift started moving but then Mrs Plimmer said they came to "the most abrupt halt".
"It was such a violent upheaval. We waited for the doors to open, as one does, but they didn't. I said, 'Oh, my word I think something's happened'," she said.
Mrs Plimmer then pushed some buttons, including a speaker, which resulted in an operator in Australia replying to their call for help. "She initially didn't know what town or even country we were in. I couldn't believe it. I said 'We're in Tauranga ... New Zealand'.
"She said she was in Sydney and I nearly had a fit."
Mrs Plimmer said she and her mother were not frightened but were frustrated.
"There was no air and I couldn't breathe. I was perspiring with the heat and my mother was very, very tired.
"She can't stand on her feet for long."
Five minutes after becoming trapped they heard a thumping on the door and mistook it for someone impatient waiting their turn in the lift.
They then heard muffled voices and realised it was someone trying to see if anyone was stuck inside.
"They asked if we were all right and what can one answer back?" she said.
Mrs Plimmer said she had no idea how old the boys were but they stayed for the entire time the pair were stuck and spoke to them to keep their mind off their situation, particularly her mother who was "quite poorly but wonderfully brave".
"It was very kind and we appreciated it.
"It was not until the doors opened up three- quarters of an inch and I could peek out that I could see their size and how young they were.
"We praised them over and over," she said.
"We think they were lovely gentlemen."
- NZPA
