A daring rescue involving a 14-month-old toddler was caught on tape in central Kansas when a police officer used quick thinking to save the child from the bottom of an underground pipe.
Police Officer Ronnie Wagner took only 15 minutes to reach the house. Wagner said that while playing in the yard on Thursday, the child stepped on a lid covering a hole. As his mother looked on, it slipped to the side and flipped over, and the boy disappeared into the hole.
Blake, the child’s father, heard his son and wife scream while he was in the driveway fixing a car.
Upon arrival, Wagner took heart from the boy’s cries, which indicated that he was alive.
The boy initially fought off the rescuers’ attempts to encircle him with a rope and haul him to safety.
Rescuers then attempted to use a PVC pipe with an L-shaped bend, hoping to slip it beneath the child. When that failed, Wagner turned the pipe into a traditional trap pole often used to ensnare wild animals. It worked. They were able to extricate the boy.
Onlookers remarked that Wagner’s improvisation reminded them of MacGyver, a television character who ingeniously used various tools and gadgets to get out of trouble.
Wagner dismissed the praise, claiming he was unfamiliar with the show. He maintained that the entire team was necessary to save the child. A fireman reached into the hole and grabbed the child while the director of emergency medical services handled the PVC pipe.
As soon as the child climbed out of the hole, his mother ran to him, exclaiming, “Momma’s here!”
Shortly after, Wagner peeked inside the ambulance to see how the child was doing. The boy was cradled in his mother’s arms.
It is unclear what the pipe was for, some speculating that it may have led to a sump pump that would have removed any surplus water from the house.
The most famous incident regarding a child falling in a hole happened in Midland, Texas, when 18-month-old Jessica McClure slipped into an uncapped well on October 14, 1987. As rescuers worked for the next 58 hours to release the girl who would be dubbed “Baby Jessica,” news-watchers around the nation anxiously watched.
