Yes, this has happened to many people, and it was common enough (or at least anticipated) that DMC even issued Service Bulletin ST-21-10/81, which describes the procedures for opening the hood after the hood release "fails to operate". Unfortunately, they don't solicit advice about how to repair or strengthen the weak links in the hood release mechanism, or to prevent this occurrence from happening altogether. I would guess that you should open the hood using the procedures described in the service bulletin. Then when you have the hood open, you might be able to push the cable through the other end so that it comes out far enough that you can grab it. If that doesn't work, you could just replace the entire cable. I'm not sure how easy that would be. Aaron #1506