Boy Rescued After Climbing in Toy Machine ELKHART, Ind. - A crane vending machine can be frustrating enough when you're trying to snatch a little stuffed toy from its steely clutches. Imagine if the prize it's denying you is your own 3-year-old son.
James Manges II managed to climb up the chute and inside one of the machines Thursday, swinging around for an hour amid the plush toys he coveted before firefighters freed him.
James' mother, Danielle Manges, said they had paid an early morning visit to a Wal-Mart in this northern Indiana city because he had been sick and was sleeping odd hours. After she denied him money to play the vending-machine game, he threw a juice box and climbed into the machine while his mother picked it up.
"Within two seconds he had climbed through the hole, into the chute and pushed the door shut so we couldn't get him out," she said.
At first, Manges thought it was funny: "He was playing with all the toys and hanging from the bar like a monkey."
She even bought a disposable camera to take pictures, as other shoppers did. But she soon became upset when Wal-Mart employees said they did not have a key to let James out.
Firefighters removed the back of the machine to free James — who went home empty-handed.
"He definitely didn't get a toy after that," Manges said.
― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Sunday, 22 May 2005 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)
Why did you emphasize that one sentence, Gear?
― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 22 May 2005 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)
I just thought it was funny that this woman's got a sick kid sleeping at weird times and she decides to take care of that by going to Walmart earlier in the day.
― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Sunday, 22 May 2005 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)
Whatever, my mom would have done that!
― A homunculus of Darby Crash, .... created for the purposes of *EVIL* (ex machina, Sunday, 22 May 2005 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)
LOL What a scamp that dear child must be.......... that was dripping with sarcasm in case anyone missed it.
Another case of a spoiled rotten brat that needs its ass whipped about 5 times a day for several months straight and maybe you would have his attention. Then you can calmly explain to him that "I said no and no means no, whenever I say no then you accept no as the answer to your whiney begging for something useless and un-needed"
Eventually some unsuspecting Teacher is going to have him dumped into their lap to deal with and eventually it will be decided that he needs to be put on drugs to calm him down to a zombie like state so that he isn't jumping from desktop to desktop kicking books and paper into the floor for fun because he doesn't feel like doing math right now.
― еdë §téè£ (еdë §téè£), Monday, 23 May 2005 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)
she only should have been allowed to take him home if she could use the crane to get him out.
― strng hlkngtn, Monday, 23 May 2005 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)
Man, I wish dude steel was MY dad.
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 May 2005 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)
Ah, so that's why they keep replaying the Spongebob episode with the toy crane thing lately!
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 23 May 2005 05:38 (twenty-one years ago)
I need high quality versions of those pics for screensavers plzkthxbye.
― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 23 May 2005 05:45 (twenty-one years ago)
It's too bad that the firefighters just took the back off the machine (Doesn't walmart stock screwdrivers? Or did they just not think of that..) Because it would have been really cool if they had gottten him out using TEH JAWS OF LIFE!!!
― diedre mousedropping and a quarter (Dave225), Monday, 23 May 2005 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)