Courtney Claypool had only been trick-or-treating a short time on Halloween before she had to be rushed to the emergency room.
The 15-year old was hit in the eye with a paintball. It happened in a Frankfort neighborhood when someone in a passing car fired paintballs at Claypool and her friends.
''She said that she reached up to her face and pulled the paintball off of her face and thought for 30 seconds that it was her eye,'' said Mary Beth Claypool, the victim's mother. "It scared the bejesus out of her,'' she said.
Mary Beth Claypool rushed to her daughter as fast as she could and found Courtney's eye bloody and swollen.
They first went to urgent care, but a doctor was concerned about retina damage, so they were taken by ambulance to a hospital.
''She was telling jokes with the paramedics, making the best of a situation. She was a real trooper,'' said Claypool.
Extensive tests showed Courtney's retina is ok. However, the Lincoln Way North High School athlete missed her diving meet over the weekend.
Even though vision is returning to that eye her father is concerned about how her eyesight will be in the long term. And how dangerous it is to shoot a paintball at someone who is not wearing protective gear.
''I think they thought it's just a Halloween prank, to pop off some paintballs, but it you've ever had paintballs, you can feel them,'' said Larry Claypool, the victim's father. " I don't know what they were thinking,'' he said.
