Las Vegas massacre victims ask 7 On Your Side for help

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A family that survived the Las Vegas concert massacre was able to return home, but their car keys remained at the crime scene. Getting a new set seemed impossible, so they tuned to 7 On Your Side.

"I went into shock," Dick Eberle said. "I couldn't hear anything. All I heard was the shots...We were just standing. Five feet away from us, people just started falling to the ground."

Eberle, his daughter Cheyenne and her boyfriend Brody were right in front of the main stage, enjoying the last night of the Highway 91 Festival in Las Vegas. Dirk even snapped a photo of the Mandalay Bay Hotel time stamped just three minutes before gunfire erupted.

"We all just said hit the deck, and we all got down," he said. "My daughter's boyfriend covered her body."

During a pause in the gunfire, they got up and ran for their lives.

"I had the feeling the bullets were coming from up high," he said. "You can feel them going by you."

They reunited near the storage lockers, where they had stowed their bags during the three-day festival.

"I thought we had lost my dad," Cheyenne said. "He has a hurt foot. He couldn't run as fast us...We were running for the front gate, and I said, 'Brody, we've got to get the stuff out of there.' And this lady said, 'No, no you've got to get out of here.'"

The family drove home to Los Angeles, and they got a call from the storage locker company the next day.

"They said it's going to be another four to five days before we get into the site," Dirk said.

In that locker, now an active crime scene, were the only set of keys the Honda dealership gave to Cheyenne when she bought her Civic last August. But when dad called the dealership to get a dupe, he got bad news.

"They said, 'You tow it down at your expense, program it at your expense, cut it at your expense,'" he said.

That was going to cost about $1,000. But there was another a big roadblock.

"I called a couple tow companies," he said. "They said, 'We 're not gonna touch it unless you have the key.'"

Cheyenne was stuck with no car to drive to college or her job, and they say the Orange County dealer only provided one key in the car sale.

Dirk started cyber-surfing for help, and he sent us an SOS from 2,800 miles away. So we called the dealership, and within three hours, a technician was at Dirk's house with a key.

"That was awesome, that's a Godsend," Dirk said. "From New York to California, that's a good distance to help someone out."

The dealership told us it regularly only gives just one key on some used car purchases, but that it made a one-time accommodation in this case.

As for Dirk and his family, they know how lucky they are be alive and well. They also know the inconvenience they experienced is minor compared to the loss suffered by so many others.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Do you have an issue with a company that you haven't been able to resolve? If so, 7 On Your Side wants to help you!

Send us your questions, issues, and story ideas to by filling out the form above, by emailing 7OnYourSideNina@abc.com, or contact Nina on her Facebook page or tweet her at Twitter @7OnYourSideNY! You can also call the 7 On Your Side Hotline at 917-260-7697.