A daring three-year-old child was rescued on Sunday from a claw machine at a shopping center in Queensland.
According to reports, the youngster got trapped inside the machine after being dragged into the prize chute.
Police released a video of the rescue showing carefree Ethan, who wasn’t in a rush to be freed, surrounded by a mountain of Hello Kitty plush toys as officers pondered how to extricate him.
Nevertheless, Ethan followed the officers’ instructions and moved to one end of the machine, closing his eyes to avoid injury.
They then broke the glass and released him.
Ethan safely reunited with his family afterward. “You’ve won a prize, which one do you want?” joked one officer.
Ethan’s father, Timothy Hooper, told reporters on Thursday that it was “unbelievable” how quickly his son got into the machine with claw arms after turning his back for a “split second” while out shopping.
“He loves claw machines… As he always does, he opened the flap to be an opportunist. Then, in a split second, he was in the machine, the door closed behind him. He stood up and realized what happened and was the king of the mountain.”
Hooper said his son passed the time fantastically inside the machine, where he remained for about 10-15 minutes.
Hooper said he called the company responsible for the machine at the time, but they were confused about what was happening.
“They were asking me how much money I’ve put into the machine, if the money got stuck. My answer was: ‘The only thing stuck in the machine is my child, and I’d really like to have him back.'”
A representative from Retail First Group on their end stated that it was the first time such an incident occurred at one of their 21 shopping centers in southeast Queensland.
“We are in discussions with the claw machine vendor just to see what measures we can take to prevent this from happening in the future,” they emphasized.
Finally, one of the police officers called to the scene had never seen a similar incident in his 11-year career.
