Photo:Michigan State Police/ Twitter
Michigan State Police/ Twitter
A woman was rescued after she got stuck in a public outhouse at Dixon Lake in Bagley Township, Michigan, on Tuesday after trying to retrieve her Apple Watch, according to theMichigan State Police Department.
In the Wednesday press release, police said that Conservation Officers from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), troopers from the Michigan State Police (MSP) Gaylord Post and Otsego County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) responded to the scene after the woman called for local first responders.
The MSP Seventh District alsoshared the newson X (formerly known as Twitter).
According to the release, first responders heard the woman yelling from the outhouse. She dropped her Apple Watch in the toilet, and in an effort to retrieve it, she lowered herself into the toilet, police said. Once she was in the toilet, she was stuck and needed help getting out.
The first responders removed the toilet, and made a strap “to hoist the woman out to safety,” the statement reads.
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MSP spokesman Lt. Derrick Carroll told theDetroit Free Pressthe unidentified woman retrieved her watch before she was rescued. The woman, who did not suffer any injuries, thanked first responders, Carroll told the outlet.
The police statement concluded with a warning, “If you lose an item in an outhouse toilet, do not attempt to venture inside the containment area. Serious injury may occur.”
Carroll later told PEOPLE that their team “guesstimated” the woman was stuck in the position for around 30 minutes. Before yelling for help, and attracting the attention of other civilians, the woman “actually gotten a strap from a vehicle tied it to the handicap bar next to the toilet, thinking she could find her way out,” explained Carroll. “And once she got down there, she quickly realized she didn’t have the strength to do it. She began yelling for help.”
Carroll added that first responders had to take the toilet seat off first. “They actually removed the toilet itself leaving just a hole in the floor because this was actually a Porta John, it was not hooked up to a public sewer system.”
Last year, a woman in Washington state was alsorescued from a public outhouse. The April 2022 incident occurred when a woman in her 40s plummeted headfirst into the public toilet at Olympic National Forest in an effort to retrieve her lost cell phone.
After the incident, the Brinnon Fire Department posted onFacebookthat the woman first attempted to dissemble the toilet herself. Once the toilet was disassembled and exposed, she tried to lower herself into the opening with dog leashes. The leashes didn’t help her escape the toilet, Brinnon Fire Chief Tim Manly said in the statement.
“After 15-20 minutes of attempting to get out, she used her phone to call 911,” Manly added.
Once the woman was rescued and sustained no injuries, Manly and first responders advised the woman to seek medical attention, due to her exposure to human waste.
source: people.com
