DH to the Rescue!
We were just about to start our shabbos meal on friday night when we saw our upstairs neighbor (the mom) standing outside the building, talking to another neighbor, with a very bemused expression on her face.
Calling out to her from the window, she tells us that her six year old son locked the door of the house, climbed out the window into the window grate, and closed the window and locked himself into the small space by the window grate.
Father was at shul and mother was outside, and neither of them had the key. Their 9 year old son was in the apartment as well, but fast asleep.
When the father came home, he climbed up the 4 flights to his apartment with my husband, and the father banged on the apartment door for five minutes, thunderous bangs as well as roaring "MATI, WAKE UP!!!!!!" again and again. Well, Mati didnt wake up, but everyone else in the apartment building did. The mother was laughing, saying "He won't wake up. He sleeps like a log. Once he goes to sleep, you can never wake him up for the next 12 hours." And she was right.
The plan was for the men to climb up to the roof, try to lower themselves onto the porch with a ladder, let themselves in through the porch, unlock the door and let the kid in through the window.
Would have been a good idea if not for the fact that the distance was too great, and my husband or the father would have had to risk their neck lowering themselves with a rope, rappeling style, onto the porch. My husband said he would have done so if there were no other option, but I'm glad it wasnt needed.
Baruch Hashem, the third floor neighbors on the same side of the building as the caught boy were home for shabbos and were in the middle of their shabbos meal. The men found a ladder on the roof and placed the ladder on the 3rd floor porch, and climbed up to the trapped boy. When they got there, the father told his son that he came to rescue him. "אבל אבא, אני לא יכול לחיות כך"- "But Father, I can't live like this" was his frantic response to the rescue and was repeated a few times. The father took a hammer and a necessary act of chillul shabbos, because not leaving a 7 year old boy overnight in the window grate was pikuach nefesh, broke the window and allowed the boy to climb inside and unlock the door and let in his family.
This mother has 2 special ed kids, including the one who had been stranded outside the window. They seem like a fun family. I assume that the reason for her bemused expression and lack of panic was because this wasnt the first and wasnt the last that something nutty like this happened in her family.
This is the second "rescue attempt" my husband was involved in in the space of 2 weeks.
Less than 2 weeks ago, my husband was walking down the street after midnight and saw a crowd gathered around an apartment building. They lived 3 flights up and were locked out. They had no way of getting in, aside for a 15 year old boy sleeping in his bedroom with the trisim shut. He wasnt answering the phone, and banging on the door was not waking him up.
My husband climbed up those three floors, using fences, gutters, and porches as stepping stones, managing to reach the window without getting hurt. He lifted up the tris, rapped on the window, waking up the sleeper who was scared witless by an unknown face outside his window, 3 floors up. He got up and let his family in, and my husband climbed back down...
Good to know that my husband's agility pays off and he manages to help people.
Calling out to her from the window, she tells us that her six year old son locked the door of the house, climbed out the window into the window grate, and closed the window and locked himself into the small space by the window grate.
Father was at shul and mother was outside, and neither of them had the key. Their 9 year old son was in the apartment as well, but fast asleep.
When the father came home, he climbed up the 4 flights to his apartment with my husband, and the father banged on the apartment door for five minutes, thunderous bangs as well as roaring "MATI, WAKE UP!!!!!!" again and again. Well, Mati didnt wake up, but everyone else in the apartment building did. The mother was laughing, saying "He won't wake up. He sleeps like a log. Once he goes to sleep, you can never wake him up for the next 12 hours." And she was right.
The plan was for the men to climb up to the roof, try to lower themselves onto the porch with a ladder, let themselves in through the porch, unlock the door and let the kid in through the window.
Would have been a good idea if not for the fact that the distance was too great, and my husband or the father would have had to risk their neck lowering themselves with a rope, rappeling style, onto the porch. My husband said he would have done so if there were no other option, but I'm glad it wasnt needed.
Baruch Hashem, the third floor neighbors on the same side of the building as the caught boy were home for shabbos and were in the middle of their shabbos meal. The men found a ladder on the roof and placed the ladder on the 3rd floor porch, and climbed up to the trapped boy. When they got there, the father told his son that he came to rescue him. "אבל אבא, אני לא יכול לחיות כך"- "But Father, I can't live like this" was his frantic response to the rescue and was repeated a few times. The father took a hammer and a necessary act of chillul shabbos, because not leaving a 7 year old boy overnight in the window grate was pikuach nefesh, broke the window and allowed the boy to climb inside and unlock the door and let in his family.
This mother has 2 special ed kids, including the one who had been stranded outside the window. They seem like a fun family. I assume that the reason for her bemused expression and lack of panic was because this wasnt the first and wasnt the last that something nutty like this happened in her family.
This is the second "rescue attempt" my husband was involved in in the space of 2 weeks.
Less than 2 weeks ago, my husband was walking down the street after midnight and saw a crowd gathered around an apartment building. They lived 3 flights up and were locked out. They had no way of getting in, aside for a 15 year old boy sleeping in his bedroom with the trisim shut. He wasnt answering the phone, and banging on the door was not waking him up.
My husband climbed up those three floors, using fences, gutters, and porches as stepping stones, managing to reach the window without getting hurt. He lifted up the tris, rapped on the window, waking up the sleeper who was scared witless by an unknown face outside his window, 3 floors up. He got up and let his family in, and my husband climbed back down...
Good to know that my husband's agility pays off and he manages to help people.