Woolworths delivery driver's 'heroic' act for locked-out mum
A mum of two is hailing a delivery driver as her hero after he helped her out when her four-year-old locked them out of the house.
Jess Skogstad is a mother, writer and part-time teacher at her local secondary school in Melbourne. Her children – Clark, 4, and 1-year-old Logan – can be a handful, so she opts to get her groceries delivered.
Ms Skogstad took Logan out with her to greet the Woolworths delivery man to collect her groceries on Wednesday.
“I took the littlest one out with me thinking it would eliminate any chaos that would come our way,” she told Yahoo News Australia.
It turns out four-year-old Clark has a habit of locking doors, resulting in Ms Skogstad being locked out in the backyard during Zoom work meetings during isolation.
“But he’s always let me in eventually, so when I heard the door lock during the Woolworths delivery, I wasn’t that concerned,” she said.
“And then I turned my head and he was right next to me, and I just said, ‘Clark, did you lock that door?’”
Clark told his mother he didn’t lock the door, deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt, Ms Skogstad didn’t realise the door was locked until the Woolworths delivery man was packing up.
Taking full advantage of her day off, Ms Skogstad and her children were all in their pyjamas.
Her phone was locked inside, and her neighbour and husband were both away. If she wanted to get help she would have to walk the streets in her pyjamas.
Because Ms Skogstad teaches English and Media at a secondary school and many of her students live in the area, she didn’t want to risk anyone seeing her in her pyjamas.
Once she realised she was locked out, Ms Skogstad went racing out through the garage to the Woolworths delivery guy to explain what had happened.
“He was so lovely, I gave him my grandfather’s number because he’s got a key to my house and he dialled it for me and put it on speakerphone,” she explained.
“I have to say, I was glad the kids were locked out with me, because if they were locked inside and I was alone out there I would have been screaming.”
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Clark and Logan have realised they’re at an advantage if they band together and gang up on their mother and father, so Ms Skogstad fears they would have taken full advantage of having the house to themselves.
Fortunately, the Woolworths driver was kind and offered to wait with Ms Skogstad to make sure she and her boys were okay and weren’t stuck outside for hours.
“He wasn’t actually going to leave until he made sure we were okay, he was really reluctant to leave,” she explained on Facebook. Ms Skogstad declared the delivery driver her “hero” for saving the day.
“It was really nice.”
‘Being locked outside in your pyjamas, it does make the funny list’
Not only were the kind actions of the delivery driver appreciated by Ms Skogstad, but Woolworths were happy to hear about his compassion.
“We’re pleased to hear our driver was able to help Jess out, and thank him for going the extra mile,” WooliesX (Woolworths online) Head of eCom Operations Logistics Gavin Keelty said in a statement to Yahoo News Australia.
“We love to see our team members doing their bit to bring a little good to someone's day – whether it’s in-store or on the delivery route.”
Ms Skogstad has written a children’s book and is the founding editor of Mum Strife, a platform for “perfectly imperfect mums”, and she said the ordeal of getting locked out was something she just had to laugh about.
“I started laughing and then my toddler started laughing with me and I was like, ‘Hey, you’re not allowed to laugh at that’, but the options were to laugh or cry yesterday,” she admitted.
“I thought you know what, if I remove myself from this situation and look at it for what it is, we’re fine, we’re just outside in our pyjamas, it’s not raining and we’ve got someone who can save us, it is pretty funny.
“You know there’s so many bad things happening in the world at the moment, being locked outside in your pyjamas, it does make the funny list.”
Like everyone, Ms Skogstad has had to adapt in recent weeks and while teaching online has meant she is working a lot more, she is very appreciative to have the extra time with her sons.
“We had the craziest nine weeks during isolation,” she said.
“But it was amazing because I didn’t have to choose between being at home with my kids or going to my job that I love.”
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