Hatch won't open, inside trick fails AND 12 Volts is Ok

Have my wife's computer and other important "stuff" suddenly unaccessible through the rear hatch of the Prius v tonight. The remote and hatch button causes a solenoid to operate in the hatch door but we get no release of the lock.

Found page 77 in the manual on how to unlock the hatch manually from the inside, said ok here goes, crawled in, popped the plastic cover with a small screwdriver, moved the less than obvious lever to the right, but the hatch still would not open. Read a November link which discussed this situation when caused by a discharged 12v battery, but my battery was ok.

Pulled a good shop light in there (the interior rear light does not work with hatch closed) and discovered the cargo net was jammed in the mechanism! I pulled and stretched the caught portion and tried the interior release again....with no results.

Time to cut the cargo net off and try to pull it out of the mechanism. Should I do it myself or let the dealer mess with it while I wait who knows how long? Perhaps they will end up cutting it out and then "maybe" replace the net under warranty?

 

I went back ready to cut the net and pulled hard enough to break it (I thought). The cargo net would not break or pull out. It's a strong net. However I did get it to slide inside the mechanism so I tried again from the outside. Pressed the button, pulled, nothing. Kept pressing and pulling, bingo:cheer2:. Sure enough it opened, the net was definitely wrapped in the latch but no real damage. Cleared the net, reinstalled the plastic interior release cover, tried the door several times and called it good.

Moral of the story, watch for the net covering the latch catch as you close the rear....and consider having one of those glass breakers handy if you find yourself submerged in the Hudson, hatch end up.