There was a flurry of activity at North Star Mart on March 22 as employees and neighbors jumped in to help a crabber catch a thousand or more crabs that fell off his truck.

Sgt. Julianna Berry of the Mathews County Sheriff’s Office said rescue efforts were in full swing when she arrived on the scene for traffic control. The truck driver, whose identity isn’t known, probably had as many as 70 baskets of crabs in the back of his refrigerated truck when the stack of baskets shifted and the door came open, she said. Baskets of crabs began to fall out, leaving a trail of crabs around a tenth of a mile long on Route 14. As many as 20 baskets toppled out and burst open before the driver realized what was happening and came to a stop.

North Star Mart employees Deidra Lockley and Jessy Williams rushed out to help, along with a number of neighbors who live nearby.

“We were using shovels, tongs, boxes, baskets, plastic bags—anything we had to catch the crabs,” said Lockley.

A few of the crabs were run over by cars before the traffic stopped, said Lockley, but not very many.

Because the crabs were cold, they weren’t moving very fast, she said, making the task of catching them easier and keeping the crabber’s loss to a minimum.

Berry said it took about an hour to catch all the crabs and send the crabber on his way. She said the incident was a perfect example of how the Mathews community comes together to help a person in need.

Of course, the crabs may not have had such a feel-good attitude about the matter.