In a remarkable rescue that was caught on tape, a 14-month-old boy was rescued from the bottom of a small pipe by a police officer in central Kansas using some quick thinking.
The Moundridge Police Department reported in a news release on Tuesday that when first responders arrived at an emergency situation on Sunday afternoon, they discovered a weeping toddler buried underground about 10 to 12 feet below the bottom of a 12-inch-wide PVC pipe.
According to KSNW-TV, the parents said they discovered their son Bentley had fallen into the hole when he was playing outside their Moundridge, Kansas, home just before 2:00 p.m.
“Looking down at him as he was screaming, he wanted out of there, he wanted help and you can’t do anything. Just complete helplessness,” Blake, the boy’s father stated, though he declined to share his last name. “It’s horrifying, it’s haunting, to feel so helpless knowing that your child is in serious need of help.”
The moment rescuers dragged a weeping Bentley out of the pipe and back to safety is shown in dramatic video shot with a police body camera.
Officer Ronnie Wagner of the Moundridge Police Department was among those there. According to the police, he used a smaller PVC pipe and rope to create “a makeshift “catch pole.” “This creative solution was instrumental in lifting the child safely from the pipe.”
Wagner contacted a local paramedic, who provided the police with a long, thin piece of PVC pipe that he used to make the capture pole—a tool frequently employed by animal control officers.
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“I threaded some rope through some PVC pipe and tied a knot at the end of it … and we used it to wrap around the child basically under his shoulders here and lift him out of the hole,” Wagner stated.
First responders constructed a catch pole, lowered its end into the hole, wrapped a rope around Bentley’s body, and hauled him to safety.
“We are relieved to report that the child, while understandably shaken, was unharmed,” the department stated. Police thanked “all the first responders for their swift and effective action, which transformed a dangerous situation into a successful rescue.”
