File this under "only at Southwest."

A few days ago a bunch of Employees faced that awful vending machine problem: their drinks were stuck.

 Not to worry, their Coworker was sure he could save the day; after all, it was just a little door that wouldn't open all the way.  So when Crew Scheduler Dave Stonecipher marched down the first floor hallway to the breakroom, he had a plan set in place...he would simply stick his hand in the machine and get things moving again.  

Do I even need to tell you what happened next?

Of course his hand got stuck. Did you really think I would blog about things working out the way he planned? I'm pretty sure an e-mail like that wouldn't have made its way around Headquarters as rapidly as the one I received with pictures of Dave with his hand stuck in the coke machine!

The kicker of the story is that when someone finally got a hold of our vending company they said they could send someone out to help--first thing the next morning!

After fellow Employees tried prying Dave's hand out with spoons and using everything they could to jimmy the machine door open, help finally arrived. They actually thought they might have had to break the glass to help him out but, luckily for Dave, a quick turn of a key in the machine lock did the trick.

 I asked Dave if he would mind me blogging about the story; Not only did he not mind, he was pleased as punch to become a celebrity on the blog. He just wants everyone to know that in his seven years as a SWA Employee he has learned a lot of things-he just hoped not to have to learn the lesson about not sticking his hand in a coke machine first hand!