News & Politics - Child Gets Stuck In Stuffed Animal Game Machine

Headhunter · 01-09-2004, 01:21 PM

Hmm.

Quote:

Child Gets Stuck In Stuffed Animal Game Machine

Timmy Never Did Get Toy

POSTED: 10:40 a.m. EST January 7, 2004
UPDATED: 1:10 p.m. EST January 7, 2004

MILWAUKEE -- A 7-year-old boy had to be rescued with the help of a locksmith Sunday after crawling into a Sheboygan, Wis., supermarket's stuffed animal game machine while his father talked on the telephone.

Shift Cmdr. Mark Zittel of the Sheboygan Fire Department said the boy was sitting in the glass enclosure with the stuffed animals when rescuers arrived.

He said Timmy Novotny somehow crawled through about an 8-by-11-inch opening to get into the machine. The stuffed animals are prizes that can be hooked with a cranelike device.

"He was just relaxed. He wasn't upset. He wasn't crying. It didn't seem like he was upset at all," said Murray Patz, who took pictures of the incident.

Zittel said the boy's father was 3 feet away at a pay phone, and when he turned around the child was in the machine.

He said the boy stayed calm as firefighters moved the machine to the back of the Piggly Wiggly store and got a locksmith to open the main loading door. The process took about an hour.

The boy was not injured, but rescuers haven'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.

Firefighters said the boy and father left Piggly Wiggly without telling them how the boy got trapped in the toy machine.

"We'd like to see how he got through this opening that is basically the size of a paper -- 8 by 11," Zittel said.

"I just, like, wanted to go in there. I thought I could slip back out, but I couldn't," Timmy said.

Timmy saw a toy he liked and went for it.

"I turned around and he was halfway in. His feet were sticking out," Timmy's father, Frank Novotny, said.

When asked if he was scared, Timmy answered, "Not at first."

"The locksmith came and in no time at all he was able to drill out the lock and entire front door of the machine opened and the young lad came right outside," Zittel said. "I've never in my 29 years seen anything like this."

If you're wondering how a boy his mom now calls "little Houdini" made it inside, get in line.

No one saw him do it. Timmy said he just wiggled his way up the shoot and through the hole.

He said he will never try to do that again.

The Piggly Wiggly has since removed the machine.

Timmy said he doesn't remember what toy he wanted to get and, much to his dismay, he walked away empty-handed.

Raonaild · 01-09-2004, 01:51 PM

My cat's like that. I made the mistake of leaving a computer tower case sitting on the floor with the front drive panel covers popped out, and she climbed right in. Good thing there were no sensitive electronic components in it at the time.

elisheva · 01-09-2004, 01:56 PM

Quote:

He said he will never try to do that again.

Right [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] His parents will probably be trying to keep a very close watch on him from now on.
Little kids are somehow super flexible and they're fast.

Enigma, I.C. · 01-09-2004, 02:39 PM

He didn't even get to keep a toy? Bummer. Oh well. Lesson learned: Don't crawl inside a toy machine.

Citizen Sarah · 01-09-2004, 04:52 PM

LOL did anyone else find that hilirously funny???

Elizajoey · 01-11-2004, 06:28 AM

[img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] OMG that is just too funny...

Here I am laughing myself to death but I almost choked when I read the stupid child didnt even get a toy. What an idiot!

Emily_Anne · 01-11-2004, 12:36 PM

I find this hilarious too! [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

Headhunter · 01-11-2004, 01:56 PM

Homer Simpson didn't get to keep his soda either, after the firemen rescued him from the vending machine. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

migamoo · 01-11-2004, 07:29 PM

i heard about this on the news about 2 days ago. i thought it was extremely weird and funny.

roswellcharmed_2000 · 01-12-2004, 01:23 AM

that happened like a half hour from me...hahaha.

i saw that on the news and turned the channel, it was such a weird story.

QueenBitch · 01-12-2004, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by roswellcharmed_2000:
<STRONG>that happened like a half hour from me...hahaha.

i saw that on the news and turned the channel, it was such a weird story.</STRONG>

Wow, I live really close to there, too. Wisconsin sucks.

SMG_fan · 01-16-2004, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Headhunter:
<STRONG>Homer Simpson didn't get to keep his soda either, after the firemen rescued him from the vending machine. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]</STRONG>

When I saw the story on the news the first thing I thought of was that Simpsons episode. Homer wasn't really stuck though, he was just holding on to the can and wouldn't let go.

Belinda

~*Jessie Flower*~ · 01-18-2004, 12:42 PM

I wished someone had captured that on video. That would've been a winner... [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Cruel Irony · 01-18-2004, 11:27 PM

You'd think maybe he'd get a toy out of it... [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

But he walked away empty handed. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

Nate the Lizaphile · 01-21-2004, 05:18 PM

I'm about 20 blocks away from that Piggly Wiggly (native Sheboyganite), and that would be something I would've tried if I was seven now [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]. I'm surprised no one noticed the kid because that front foyer where the machine was is pretty huge. But I can see how the father could've gotten distracted by the pay phone, it didn't face the machine at all

The kid got to go to New York and appear on GMA and Fox News a couple weeks ago with his parents and Deputy Chief Zittel, it was a fine interview. But a little sad that Sheboygan has to get a kid stuck in a machine to get a mention anywhere in the national media.


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