Without a traditional door handle on the 2006 Cadillac, Peter Pyros was unable to get out of the car.
A 75-year-old Ohio man endured hours of hell after getting locked in his car.
Peter Pyros' nightmare began when he climbed into his sporty 2006 Cadillac, which had been sitting idle for several months in his garage in Cleveland.
When he got inside, the car wouldn't start and without a traditional door handle on the Cadillac, he realized he was locked in with the windows up.
Eric Neumann, the owner of Miracle Autosport in New Jersey, described to Inside Edition what went wrong, saying the locks on the vehicle are electronic both inside and outside.
“[If a] battery dies, if a wire comes loose, the door doesn't open,” he said.
“I tried to punch the window, but nothing happened out of that,” Pyros told Inside Edition. “Then, I got my legs up and I tried to kick the window out with both my legs and that didn't happen.”
Pyros was screaming at the top of his lungs to get his neighbor to help him, but nothing worked.
He was drenched in sweat and he says he was having trouble breathing and passed out twice.
“When I came to, I thought, 'This is not a dream, Pete. You're in here and you're not getting out. You are going to die,'” he recalled.
Thinking the end was near, he left a note.
“I scribbled on it to my nephew, that I’m dying a terrible death — that I can't get out of the car," he said. “I didn't want anybody to think that I had committed suicide.”
About 14 hours later, there was a miracle, as his next-door-neighbor stopped by, and saw Pyros trapped in the car.
Only after he was rescued, Pyros says, did he learn that his car comes with a manual door-release lever by each seat.
Only certain make and model cars were made without manual door handles. Cadillac says it's important to check your owner's manual to know exactly how your car's doors operate.
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