Yeah but... How many quarters did it take to get him out??

[MeanLaureen]

Boy Gets Stuck in Animal Game Machine

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (Jan. 5) - A 7-year-old boy had to be rescued with the help of a locksmith Saturday after crawling into a supermarket's stuffed animal game machine while his father talked on the telephone.



Jeffrey Roland Debbink

"He was sitting right in there with the stuffed animals," said Shift Commander Mark Zittel of the Sheboygan Fire Department.

He said the boy, whose name was not released because he is a minor, crawled through about an 8-inch-by-10-inch opening to get into the glass enclosure via a chute where the toys come out, but when he tried to get back out his way was blocked.

The stuffed animals are prizes that can be hooked by players with a crane-like device.

"His dad was three feet away at a pay phone," Zittel said. "He was talking on the phone and he said the next thing he turned around and the kid was in the thing."

He said the boy stayed calm and didn't panic as firefighters responded to the Piggly Wiggly store and then moved the game machine to the back of the store and got a locksmith to open the main loading door. The process took about an hour.

"There was no panic," Zittel said. "We could have broke the glass if there was an emergency."

The boy was not injured or traumatized but desperately had to go to the bathroom, he said.

But rescuers hadn't figured out how the boy was able to crawl into the game, or why no one in the store's busy lobby spotted him and stopped him before he got inside.

 

[Manda1219]

I can't help but laugh at this. It was on the news yesterday, and all I can think of is the hundreds of kids i hear in a week crying because their parents won't give them quarters...I'd never wish this fate upon them...but it is kind of funny!

 

[Samandmom]

I think this is hilarious. The parents should have that picture blown up and hung up in his room. But what I can't understand is how in the world he fit into the slot that the stuffed animals come out of.

 

[mickeyboat]

Incredible, even more so when you see the picture.

I just saw one of these machines at our local seafood restaurant where you can capture a lobster.

Anything to make a buck!

Denae

 

[CajunDixie]

That poor kid will never live it down. As for getting in the machine those stuffed animals are much larger than the lil hand sized stuff we have in our grocery's machine. Look at the white animal with gold clothing and the purple one under it. I can see how he could get in a hole big enough to easily get the stuffed animals out. The hardest part would be getting his shoulders inside....the rest would be simple.


On a side note with the extreme cold weather we have had we brought DS' rabbit in a few nights in his old small cage. Since I didnt want to switch his feeder back and forth (it has tie wraps in addition to the hooks because he'd knock it out of the hole) I just used a small dish for food when he was in the house. Well wouldn't you know a full grown Black Satin can fit through the lil hole where the feeder goes? LOL He gave DH one huge surprise when he went running past him the one morning.