We won’t enter a closed area…

Sunday, October 27th, 2024, at 5:12 a.m. (ET), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Florida. The requester, Corey, submitted the following information: “There is an entrance to a wooded area on International Drive south near World Center Drive, I am willing to meet you at the entrance of the trail. I am not stuck very bad at all, I dropped into a hole and now my 2003 Land Rover discovery is sitting on the frame causing my vehicle to lose all traction/get jammed up. Once on the trail you will hit a large sand area, this is mainly sugar sand so four-wheel-drive is needed… Continue heading towards back right of sand area and there is a trail to the right through the woods; I am on this trail about half a mile down. GPS location is exact and if you use a map service on your phone in satellite mode the trail will be very apparent. The trail I am on is very manicured and not overgrown, there are some spots of water but the water is only 2 to 4 inches deep and the ground beneath is very solid and compacted. Thank you in advance! / I’m with the vehicle“

Our administrator, Al Fontan, contacted the requester and verified the contact information provided, GPS location, and current situation before sending the request to local volunteers. In this particular recovery, we contacted volunteers within a 25-mile radius.

We had this request opened for less than an hour, and some of our volunteers verified this area was not actually open to the public. We contacted the requester, explained this, and canceled the request.

In situations like this, our priority is the safety of our volunteers; we won’t keep any requests active if the area is closed. We are sharing this post mostly so people understand we can only access closed areas once authorities provide us with permission.

We still want to thank all the volunteers who responded to the call. (offroad recovery in Florida)

If you would like to receive a text message when we get a request near you, create your account here: offroadportal.org/signup