Move over balloon boy: a teen in Jackson has provided new drama. But this was no hoax.
"I've been living here, ma'am, since 1968, and I never seen anything like this," neighbor Ida Allen told WLBT News.
Around 8 a.m. Thursday, a flurry of commotion pulled neighbors in Northwest Jackson's Woodlea neighborhood out of their houses to learn that the 13-year-old boy who lives in the corner house was caught in the chimney!
"I came down, I could hear him yelling, screaming," says onlooker Dorothy White.
Allen says she could hear moans coming from the house.
"He was scared. That (was) the voice of a scary child," Allen told us.
We're told the boy's name is Michael. Neighbors say it started when Michael's school book bag was thrown on the roof.
"The book bag had been thrown by his brother down the chimney, and he tried to get it," Allen says.
But Michael couldn't get out. A witness called 9-1-1. Police and fire crews quickly arrived, and began the work of pulling him to safety.
White tells us after a while, police came knocking on her door looking for a certain household tool to help with the rescue: Crisco.
"I guess that was to make him kinda slippery for them to get him, because he's a small framed little fellow," she says.
In the end, shortening fell short.
Firefighters grabbed a sledgehammer and busted the chimney's bricks. Michael emerged, shaken and taken to the hospital for observation, but he's OK.
Mom stood by through the entire rescue. She accompanied her son in the ambulance.
Onlookers applaud the polished skill of police and firefighters.
"We've really seen our guys at work here today," White says.
They hope any future chimney action will come from Santa.
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