Man stuck in well uses cell phone to call help
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 30, 2007
SANDPOINT, Idaho (AP) -- A 65-year-old man who fell head first into a well and became stuck upside down was able to work his cell phone free and call for help.
"(Otherwise) I would be pushing up daisies," Roger Klopfenstein told the Bonner County Daily Bee in this northern Idaho city. "I lost my grip and couldn't get out. I was stuck big time."
Klopfenstein, who retired a year ago, said he put a ladder inside the well on Monday so he could walk down it hands first to work on a pump, hooking his feet over the top of the well at its edge.
"It just didn't work," he said. "I lost too much strength."
He fell about six feet and became wedged between the wall of the well and the pump.
Brad Mitton, fire chief for the Northside Fire Department, said Klopfenstein was lucky his cell phone worked inside the well.
"Things went well. It was a good thing," Mitton said.
Crews arrived within 10 minutes after Klopfenstein called and had him freed within five minutes, officials said. Klopfenstein ended up with some scrapes and bruises but was otherwise not hurt.
"Those guys were great," Klopfenstein said. "They got me out of there lickety split."
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