Key's Recovered

We live in a neighborhood that has a common mailbox.  Regularly I trek down to the mailbox with my mailbox key and get our mail.  At the base of the mailbox is a storm drain and it is about 10 feet deep.  It really is poor placement and many times, I have thought, "Man, this would be really bad if I dropped mail or my keys down there."

Well, today was that really bad moment.  One second my keys were in my hand and the next second they were at the base of the storm drain.  After peering down it for about five minutes, I couldn't see them and decided that they were indeed lost.  Not a huge deal but frustrating.  

After talking with my husband, he suggested I go back and check again.  We have been having a lot of snow/rain and when I went back, I could see them sitting on top of a pile of sludge.  So, I ran home, taped two wire hangers together and tried to "hook" them.  I couldn't do it.  

So, back home, I thought about it for a while and found a big magnet of my sons and with a long piece of string, headed back down to the storm drain.  The keys are brass but they were all connected with a metal key ring.  This time it worked!  I was able to recover my keys.   After a quick wash to get off all of the sludge, everything is back to normal.  Phew.