A heart-stopping video captured the moment a quick-thinking rescue crew saved a toddler who had fallen down a deep, narrow PVC pipe in his Kansas yard.
First responders arrived at the scene on Sunday afternoon to find a crying toddler stuck 10 to 12 feet underground in a 12-inch-wide PVC pipe, according to a news release from the Moundridge Police Department on Tuesday.
The parents had called 911 just before 2:00PM after realizing their son Bentley had fallen into the hole while playing outside their home in Moundridge, about 40 miles northwest of Wichita, KSNW-TV reported.
"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," Bentley’s father, Blake, told the station, 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."
Dramatic video captured by a police body camera shows the moment rescuers pulled a crying Bentley from the pipe and back to safety.
"Nice and easy," one rescuer is heard saying, as another adds: "We got an arm, we got an arm."
They then return Bentley to his parents' frantic arms.
Among those on the scene was Officer Ronnie Wagner of the Moundridge Police Department, who constructed "a makeshift catch pole using a smaller PVC pipe and rope," police said.
"This creative solution was instrumental in lifting the child safely from the pipe."
Wagner called a nearby paramedic who had a thin, long piece of PVC pipe, which the officer used to create the catch pole, commonly used by animal control officers.
"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 told KSNW-TV.
Once the catch pole was created, first responders lowered the end of the pole into the hole, secured the rope around Bentley's body, and pulled him to safety.
"We are relieved to report that the child, while understandably shaken, was unharmed," the department said. Police thanked "all the first responders for their swift and effective action, which transformed a dangerous situation into a successful rescue."
Officials said the boy’s own quick thinking might have saved him from further harm — they suspect he slowed his descent as he fell by flailing his arms, per the New York Post.
The purpose of the pipe in the family’s yard remains uncertain, but it is suspected to have been connected to a sump pump at one point, used to divert excess rainwater away from the house.
Blake and Elizabeth have already made plans to bolt the cover down to prevent future incidents.