Four car mechanics from Eindhoven couldn’t stand the sight of stranded travellers in Italy. Storms there destroyed many cars, caravans and tents. The men decided to load up a van with new car windows and set off. “People were calling us in desperation”, he said.
On Saturday afternoon, the men left. The next night they arrived in Lazise, Italy. “We got there around 04:30 and at 09:00 we started on the first car”, Vadim Chpilevski, owner of MGS Autoglas in Eindhoven, says. By Sunday evening at around 18:00, they had already replaced thirteen car windows. “We will continue until the middle of the night. We want to help as many people as possible so they can go back home”.
Co-owner Yvonne Chpilevski stayed in the Netherlands, to arrange contact with customers and keep the business running. “When we heard the reports about the severe weather, we felt we had to do something”, she says. “We had already received a few calls from people stranded in Italy”.
I just wanna go home
The company posted a call on Facebook, asking if any aggrieved travellers were in need of a new car window. “Our phone and email then exploded”, Yvonne says. “We didn’t want to go that way for just three windows, but within an hour we had already made about 20 appointments. Everyone was desperate for a way to get their car fixed”.
The mechanics recorded a total of over fifty appointments in Lazise and Peschiera. “I had grown men on the line who were close to tears. That’s pretty intense”, Yvonne says.
Down in the dumps
On Saturday the men loaded two buses full of car windows.They had made a record of which car each customer had, so they knew which windows to bring. “They also took some emergency windows with them, so they might be able to help additional people there”.
The four men will go through all the appointments in four days. “They’re going to be at a campsite tomorrow where all the cars are lined up. That’s the fastest way to replace the windows. Some travellers there are down in the dumps and want to get home as soon as possible”. On Wednesday they hope to be finished and the mechanics will return home.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
