A man suspected of shoplifting a CVS store in Radnor Township, Delaware County, was rescued Sunday after he got stuck in a drain pipe while attempting to elude police, according to a story from WPVI.
According to the report, around 4:30 p.m., officers from Radnor and Lower Merion township officers were chasing after the suspect following a theft at a pharmacy in Bryn Mawr.
Police then saw him entering the drain pipe along Conestoga Road.
That’s when everything shifted to a rescue operation.
“You never know what people are going to do. That’s why we have these jobs,” Chris Flanagan, superintendent of Radnor Township Police, told the station.
Several fire companies and a special task force were brought in, WPVI reported. First responders told the news station that these pipes pose a number of hazards.
“You don’t know what’s in there, you don’t know if you can get out. Low oxygen content. It looks clean, it looks safe, it looks fun, but the farther you go in, the less oxygen movement; you get low oxygen, you can start to have problems with where you are, disorientation, and can get trapped,” Task Force leader Joseph Dishler said.
First responders put air in the pipe right away to ventilate the space for the suspect, who was about 75 feet in. Three rescuers then entered the pipe, and were able to extricate the trapped man.
The suspect, whose name and age were not released, was taken to a medical center for treatment and is expected to make a full recovery.
“Sometimes people do things that are not very smart, and they jeopardize other people’s lives and their own, and we don’t want those things to happen, but often they spin out of control very quickly,” Flanagan told WPVI.
