WINDOW DEFROSTER: Oops! Some overly energetic ice-chipping leaves Helfer with a busted rear window. (Brigitte Stelzer)
LET THE CHIPS FALL: Careful not to inflict any more damage to his luxury ride, Peter Helfer chisels away to free a front wheel from its icy grip in the East Village yesterday. (Brigitte Stelzer)
Neither keys — nor even a tow truck — could move these frozen wheels!
An East Village man yesterday needed a blowtorch, hammer and chisel — and a day’s worth of determination — to rescue his car, which had become encased in ice thanks to a freakish series of factors that included a busted underground pipe, passing cars splashing water and subfreezing temperatures.
Peter Helfer, 32, wound up smashing the back window and scratching up the paint on his 2008 Audi A3 station wagon as he struggled to chip, thaw and steam it free.
“Woohoo! I’m glad it’s over!” the married marketing exec shouted after driving his finally thawed-out vehicle to dealership mechanics on the West Side at around 4 p.m.
Helfer had parked his fancy wheels on Friday night in front of 44 E. Second St., near where he lives, and didn’t return to it until coming home dejectedly from a Jet party Sunday night.
“It was really adding insult to injury because I found it after the Jets game,” Helfer said.
City workers told The Post they believe the car was parked right near a faulty water line they had recently tried to repair. But the city pipe apparently wasn’t fixed completely, and a mini-pond formed around Helfer’s vehicle.
Passing cars then splashed the icy water on Helfer’s car for more than 48 straight hours — the final ingredient for an auto Popsicle.
Helfer said he started toiling on the car — featured in an exclusive photo in The Post yesterday — at around 9 a.m. and quickly realized it would take hours to finish the job.
“I shot off a note to my office . . . and told them why I couldn’t make it, and they thought I was kidding,” said Helfer, who works for a marketing firm in Queens. “But then I sent the link from The Post.”
City workers who were back to fix the leaky pipe pitched in with a steam-blasting blowtorch that’s used on frozen pipes.
The workers said that they were usually prohibited from assisting civilians but that they felt bad for Helfer.
“He’s a nice guy . . . so we thought we’d do him a favor,” one worker said.
After the car was freed, Helfer said he was optimistic the only real damage would be the busted window — and he hopes his insurance will cover it.
Additional reporting by David K. Li