JENNINE Inns will never forget the day she met her new neigh- bours.

After moving house two months ago, she did not think she would to intro- duce herself to the street by getting the fire brigade out.

But she found herself in a pickle when she was locked out of her house after returning from work.

With her husband Gra- ham out playing golf, Mrs Inns turned to one of her new neighbours for help, expecting he would have a ladder to climb in through a window and unlock the door.

However, 27-year-old Lee Martin had a better idea.

He decided to shimmy up the drainpipe at the back of the terraced house in Chapman Street, Heaton, and get in through the back bed- room window.

He got into difficulties when his foot got stuck in the drainpipe and after finally making it to the open window, his chest got stuck half-way in and he was unable to get back down again due to the steepness of the window ledge.

Panic-striken, Mrs Inns ran around to the front of the house, shouting for help and another neigh- bour, who she had also never met, called the fire service at about 6.30pm on Wednesday.

Mrs Inns, aged 31, who works for NHS Bolton, said: “We were laughing about it after, we just couldn’t believe we had to get the fire brigade out. We kept saying ‘sorry’ but they were really good.

“It was scary at first LOCK OUT Jennine Inns with the keys she mislaid and neighbour Lee Martin who climbed a drainpipe to help her because if he’d fallen he would have hurt himself, but it all turned out good in the end.

“It was the first time I’d met anyone so it was a bit mad because everyone came out.”

A crew from Bolton Central Fire Station used a ladder to help Mr Mar- tin down and a firefighter climbed through the win- dow and unlocked the door.

Mr Martin said: “I was- n’t panicking, I just stood there and waited. I didn’t believe them when they said they’d called the fire brigade, I was planning how I could get down. Jennine was really pleased and she bought me six bottles of lager to thank me.”

Trish Roberts, aged 29, who called the fire serv- ice, added: “It brought the whole street together because the couple had just moved in, and what better way to get to know people in the street than being a damsel-in-dis- tress.”

Ady Taylor, watch com- mander at Bolton Central fire station, said: “We got the call as a man with his foot stuck in a drainpipe, which in over 100 years of experience between us, none of us had come across before.

“How he had managed not to fall I have no idea. He was a bit embarrassed about it.

“The lady who called us said she was sorry for get- ting us out, but at the end of the day we are here to help people out.”