LITTLE monkey Michael Wilkie is still the apple of his mother's eye despite sparking a 999 scare.

The curious two-year-old left parents Christina and Stewart with some explaining to do when he managed to lock himself inside a borrowed Land Rover. Despite his size he was able to pull shut a heavy door and push levers to lock the doors. Attempts to persuade him to unlock the doors failed, and outside help was needed. Neighbours were amazed to see Haywards Heath firefighters turn up at the family home in Meadow Lane, Lindfield, to free mischievous Michael. But he was not worried by all the fuss. Christine, who also has a daughter, Louisa, ten months, said: "He wasn't at all frightened. He found a bag of sweets and sat there tucking in. "It was embarrassing, but we are not annoyed with him. What can you say? It was just one of those things. "We didn't even have a spare set of keys because we had borrowed the car to go down to Cornwall. "Stewart was cleaning it out and was only away a matter of seconds. "The ignition was left on because Stewart was listening to a sports update on the car radio. "I don't know how Michael managed to close the door because it is quite heavy. The firefighters were really good, they were so nice about it." The Haywards Heath crew are not saying exactly how they got Michael out for security reasons, but a spokesman said: "The little lad wasn't worried. He thought the whole thing was great."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.