That surely is some big machine!
Sounds like a nice little adventure. Best of all, Karl seems to have gotten out of there unharmed.
It's good to know there are some open-hearted people out there. A friend of mine once drove his car into ankle-deep mud, and we weren't able to free it. Some enterprising farmer arrived and pulled out the car with tractor and rope. When my friend offered him 20 Marks (back in the day before the funny munny), the farmer simply said: "Yeah... The rate's double that." Quite disillusioning.