A quick-thinking butcher who got trapped in his own walk-in freezer was praised by King Charles III after he came up with a unique way of saving his own life - by battering his way out with a frozen black pudding. Chris McCabe, 74, feared that he might die after getting stuck in the fridge which stores meat at temperatures of -20C.
He was unable to access the emergency release button as it had frozen over - and his calls for help went unanswered. As the butcher started to accept his fate, his eyes fell on a sausage of black pudding - coincidentally from the King's butcher HM Sheridan of Ballater, and used it to beat the ice off the emergency release button and free himself.
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The King, a prince at the time, then heard of the story and praised Chris for his quick thinking - and even went on to say that the police should be armed with black pudding going forward.
Speaking today, Chris said: "You could say I'm proud. It's still an amazing story, we get a lot of people who come in and ask about me getting locked into the freezer.
"It's a bit of a claim to fame, there can't be many other people that have done that - especially as it was the royal butchers it came from.
"Our new King had been in and he's heard about it, it's a nice story isn't it.
"He said that the police should be armed with black pudding, or something like that.
"Someone must have told him the story, he was up there and he was doing a tour of Ballater or something, which is his local town as such, and somehow or other the conversation must have come up when he was being filmed.
"I still stock the same black pudding, the price has gone up, everything has - we sell quite a bit of it every week. We sell haggis too, from the royal butchers.
"Black pudding now costs about £4 for four or five slices, that's a breakfast portion."
Chris added that he was saddened by the Queen's death, but said he had high hopes for the King. He continued: "I've always supported the royal Family, I think they do an incredible job.
"It's amazing how long she was queen for, there won't be another one like that - it's sad, but everyone knew she wasn't looking well.
"It's amazing she was able to carry out so many events in June, she must have been feeling very tired as she missed Royal Ascot."
Back in 2018, Chris, a father-of-four from Totnes, Devon, found himself locked in his walk-in freezer. He said: "Black pudding saved my life, without a doubt.
"No one could hear me banging because it is outside, round the back of the shop.
"The black pudding was the best thing to hit the button with because it was the right shape.
"I used it like the police use battering rams to break door locks in, that's what I did with the black pudding.
"It was solid, pointed and I could get plenty of weight behind it. I'm lucky really, we sell about two or three each week and that was the last one in there."
Chris said the wind had blown the door shut after he went in and to his horror the inner door release button had frozen over.
He frantically looked around for something to save him - but couldn't find anything to de-ice the emergency release.
The lamb was too big and the beef didn't afford enough grip, and Chris said he had all but given up hope he spotted his last black pudding.
The fried breakfast favourite, supplied straight from the King's butcher HM Sheridan of Ballater, was the perfect size, weight and most importantly diameter.
Chris wielded the 1.5kg stick of blood sausage and gave the green door-release button a whack before being freed on the third attempt.
He added: "I had rushed in, I was in a hurry as usual and I heard the door shut behind me, I thought that was ok because I could kick the safety button from inside.
"I've been shut in before and I used the button to get out then, but this time it was frozen solid.
"I removed all the metal racking around it and I looked around for some thing to hit it with and I came on the idea of using a black pudding stick.
"They weigh 1.5kg and they are a big long stick that you can just about get your hand around.
"I managed to get in a position to bash the button a few times until the ice broke and the door opened.
There is no passing footfall around the freezer, and no one to hear any cries for help coming from within the icy box.
Chris said that meat is frozen solid in the freezer in just half an hour, and although he was only stuck for a few minutes during the incident on 15 December, he believes he would have died within half an hour.
Then, later that year, King Charles III, then a prince, heard the story from his butcher in Scotland in a moment that was caught on film by the BBC.
Charles told co-owner Barry Florence: "There’s an awful story, this poor butcher who got locked into his own cold room, and there’s a button you press to get out and it had frozen up or something.
"He was getting more desperate, poor man, freezing to death, and nobody could hear him shouting and screaming.
"Finally his eye fell on a black pudding which had come from the wonderful local butcher in Ballater.
"It was wonderfully frozen, and he beat it a couple of times and got out."
He then described the black pudding as a "highly valuable object" and added: "Perhaps from now on the police ought to be armed with black puddings."
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