I jumped into the driver's seat put it in first pushed the useless clutch and hit the starter. It chugged forward and started. I was surprised it did (especially since it was still attached to the trailer) but then I gave him a lesson in clutchless driving back to the house. Since I have had a lot of junkers I learned to to that a long time ago.
Something similar happened when I was riding with a friend in his Audi sedan. He was going to call a tow truck, but I told him how to shift without the clutch and we got where we were going.
When I drove VWs, sometimes I’d drive around for a week or more with a broken clutch cable before bothering to replace it.