Firefighters in Palatine get all kinds of calls, but weren't quite sure what to expect when they were summoned to a laundromat to free a toddler who had climbed into a game machine.
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You know those prize bins filled with toys, where you control a claw remotely to try to extract a toy? One little boy was so determined to get his prize, he somehow managed to climb into the bin, but then couldn't get out.
The child's face has been blurred to protect his identity, but you can see clearly in the original video that the child is scared and crying. It was stressful situation for the little boy and for his mom who was standing by the glass helpless to get him out.
When the Palatine Fire Department arrived on the scene in the 1200-block of West Dundee Road, they found a boy completely inside the prize machine, filled with stuffed animals. He was trapped, but not injured.
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When firefighters arrived, they contemplated breaking the glass to get the boy out, but opted against that so he wouldn't suffer any cuts. Instead, they disassembled the top of the machine, lowered a firefighter down far enough to grab the child and pulled them both out.
We still don't know how the kid got in, but, as any parent knows, kids can get into just about anything in 2.3 seconds flat. And what about the toy he was after?
Firefighters retrieved two toys. One for him and hopefully one for another child, possibly the other one in the video, who stayed out of trouble.