When he went to check in for his flight from London to Vancouver, Danny Pizarro realized he had brought an expired permanent residency card. An Oak Bay Facebook group bailed him out
Danny Pizarro realized he had made a big mistake when he went to check in for his flight from London to Vancouver 24 hours before departure and realized he had brought the wrong permanent residency card — his expired one.
Pizarro, a U.K.-born Victoria resident of 15 years, was set to leave London last Sunday after visiting his mother when he realized the problem.
In a panic, Pizzaro told his wife, Kirsten, who posted on the popular Oak Bay Local Facebook group to ask if anyone was travelling to London and could bring him the card.
Denise Harris Rees saw the post and showed her husband, Gareth, who happened to be travelling to London that evening for a trip to fundraise for the Canadian women’s rugby team for this year’s Rugby World Cup.
Kirsten co-ordinated with Rees to get the card in his hands before he left, while Pizarro waited anxiously to see if the hand-off would work.
“From that moment on, I was basically praying,” he said.
When Pizarro got to Heathrow Airport, he let Air Canada staff know about the situation, and they arranged to have the card ready at his gate.
They even upgraded his ticket after he explained he couldn’t book his usual aisle seat because of the last-minute panic.
By complete coincidence, the rugby coach’s plane arrived at the gate next door, less than half an hour before Pizarro was set to board.
When the gate agent finally returned from Rees’s plane with the card, everyone in the waiting area clapped, said Pizarro. “It was a bit like aLove Actuallyfilm,” he quipped.
Pizarro said he later learned that his father-in-law and Rees’s father-in-law played rugby and cricket together, that his dad knows Rees, and that he used to coach his brother-in-law on the Canadian rugby team.
“It’s Oak Bay — everyone knows everyone, somehow,” he said.
Pizarro said he thinks his Facebook post thanking Rees garnered more than 1,300 likes because people want to see “good collaboration and people helping each other out.”
“It comes at a time when there’s so much bad news,” he said.
Pizarro didn’t get the chance to see Rees exit the plane, but looks forward to treating him to a drink when they’re both back in Oak Bay.
“It was just madness, because it all worked out.”
[email protected]