Just returned from a family holiday in Marbella to celebrate his 50th birthday, Ray D’Arcy revealed to Today FM listeners that it wasn’t a completely relaxing experience.
While trying to juggle shopping bags, a lift and their two young children – Kate, aged seven and two-year-old Tom – Ray and his wife Jenny were horrified when the lift doors closed with Tom on the wrong side.
The lift jammed and the couple were unable to free their little boy for a heart-stopping 15 minutes.
“For those 15 minutes it was horrific,” Ray told listeners. “The lift got stuck. It's your two-year-old who can't talk and you can't communicate with him to press a button.”
"It was traumatic. You know you are thinking to yourself that eventually someone is going to come and open it but you are thinking about your poor little two-year-old.”
Jenny ran up to the next floor to call the lift, but it wouldn’t move.
"Jenny was trying to communicate with Tom who was saying, 'Mammy, Mammy'," Ray said.
"Jenny was thinking of a doomsday situation. She was thinking the lift is going to plummet to the ground as it does in the movies. But it was in the basement."
The panicking parents called the lift company, who told him it would take at least 20 minutes to get someone out to them. Ray ran out to the swimming pool to find help.
"I ran out to the pool to get the lifeguard saying, 'My son is stuck in a lift, my son is stuck in a lift. Please help, help, help'," he said.
The apartment manager cut the power to the lift, and Ray was able to wrench the doors open.
"It was like Superman stuff. I put my foot up against the wall and I pulled the door open,” he said.
"I could hear Tom. The lift had gone up about two feet and stuck. It opened. That was the most emotional reunion.”
Baby Tom was a little distressed when they got him out, but otherwise fine. His parents on the other hand are still recovering from the fright.
"Jenny is still the worse for wear.” Ray joked.
