By: David Matthews
Delivery drivers have been the unsung heroes of the coronavirus crisis, putting themselves at risk to bring the rest of us essential goods like produce, cleaning supplies, and bulk orders of toilet paper.
One delivery worker in Colombia has been particularly selfless. He has been working tirelessly every day through the pandemic, asking only to be paid in snacks.
This hero’s name is Eros, and he’s an eight-year-old chocolate Labrador. When his owners opened a mini-market four years ago, Eros began accompanying them on their deliveries, where he developed a taste for treats.
When coronavirus cases began spiking this summer throughout South America, Colombia placed restrictions on how often citizens could go out for groceries.
In order to care for their customers while also following social distancing guidelines, the market turned over delivery duties to Eros.
His owners trained Eros to carry a straw basket full of groceries in his mouth, up and down the hilly neighborhood streets, and deliver them to customers’ homes all by himself. Since he can’t read street addresses, Eros remembers the location of the homes based on the treats they give him.
Customers are able to pay for their order online, but Eros still requires a tasty tip upon delivery.
Un-bee-lievably good
While most of the automotive industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, Rolls-Royce is on track to set a production record in 2020.
In 2017 Rolls-Royce opened a honeybee apiary, which today employs 250,000 bees near its Goodwood, England, headquarters.
Since these workers are not required to socially distance or work from home, Rolls-Royce announced that it expects record-setting honey production this year.
Unfortunately this high-end honey is for customers only. To get a taste, you’ll have to travel to Goodwood and commission a $300,000 luxury car.
A walk in the park
Social distancing was the least of Lachlan Marie’s concerns when he found himself stranded in a national park in Australia this summer.
The 23-year-old told Australia’s ABC News that he was exploring the Western Australia coast in his parents’ Jeep Cherokee when he veered off the main path to drive across the mudflats, assuming they would be dry and solid.
“Once I got onto it, my wheels started sinking in and getting just … stuck,” Marie remembered. “I was just completely bogged.”
He tried to dig the Jeep out with a shovel but couldn’t get it to budge. There were no other people in the remote park to ask for help, and no phone reception to call for assistance.
So armed with a backpack, four water bottles, a sleeping bag, a butane stove, and some food, he set off on a 40-mile trek back to civilization.
“I figured that if I didn’t get moving, if I didn’t find my way out of the park, I was probably not going to make it,” Marie said.
Despite the challenging terrain and windy nights, water quickly became Marie’s biggest concern. After two days of walking, his water bottles were empty, and he was forced to drink from “filthy mud puddles.”
Then on the third day, Marie saw his first sign of life: a vehicle travelling down a road on the horizon.
The vehicle passed Marie three times before he was finally able to get the driver’s attention.
“[He] pulled up and said ‘G’day mate, how you going?’” Marie recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, pretty terrible actually.’”
The driver agreed to give Marie a ride to the nearby town of Esperance, where Marie asked to be dropped off at a pub for a celebratory steak dinner.
After having a good news, bad news call with his parents about his adventure and the state of their Jeep, Marie’s mom convinced him to get checked out at a hospital. Good thing because Marie was found to be dangerously dehydrated and needed 8 liters of intravenous fluids.
He remembers doctors telling him, “Yeah, your muscles are breaking down and everything, this is not good.”
Once Marie had recovered, his father flew down to Esperance so that the pair could spend a week checking out the local attractions. This time, however, Marie agreed to let his dad do the driving.
About The Author: Matthews has been chronicling the unexpectedly humorous side of transportation news since 2000. The stories are all true.
