When money is low, as it is for so many homeless people throughout the world, so are resources. Besides necessities like food and shelter, most homeless people often don’t have many people caring for them.
For whatever reason they wound up in the situation that they’re in, they often have to rely on their smarts and strangers on the street to survive. But what happens when they’re in a situation that they literally can’t get out of. Will anyone help them? Read the following story to find out one homeless man’s experience…
A Dream Place To Live
Michael Anthony lives in one of the most magical places in the world, Honolulu, Hawaii. Known as an ideal vacation spot for most Americans, Michael gets to call this place home. There’s only one problem- Mike’s homeless.
Baseball Is What Makes Him Happy
Being unable to afford to live in his own place, he relies on the streets and pristine beaches of Honolulu to rest his head. He also takes advantage of the beautiful weather by playing baseball outside…
Baseball Mike
Earning himself the nickname, “Baseball Mike,” many of his friends know where to find him- on the roof of the former Heald College parking lot garage. There, he practices his skills, in hopes of one day making it big.
Heald College Parking Lot Garage
One Friday, Mike was hitting some baseballs when he lost one in a narrow gap between the parking garage and a Walgreens pharmacy next door. After losing a total of six balls, he decided to go down after it…
Running Into A Dilemma
The walls of the space were so narrow, around 9 inches that Mike wasn’t sure how he could fit. But being that those baseballs were some of his only possessions, Mike couldn’t afford to lose them. He decided to go down after them.
With His Eye On His Baseballs
The 55-year-old man made his way down the gap, but things quickly turned tricky. “I saw it was skinny at the bottom but I’m skinny, very skinny,” Mike said. Moments later, he let out an ‘uh oh.’ The space was too small for him to fit, yet he kept going with his eye on his baseballs. They were all he had…
He Thought He Was Doomed
As he went down a little lower and a little lower, he realized there may be no coming back. Mike said to himself, “I just didn’t think I was coming out of that hole.” That was the moment Mike realized he had actually got himself stuck between two walls.
The Property’s Supervisor Had Seen Him That Morning
Being homeless meant he didn’t have a cell phone, so he did the only thing he could think of, he yelled very loudly. A man named Ray Rodrigues, the property management supervisor at the former college said he saw the man, known to those who work in the area only as “Mike,” earlier in the day…
Wedged Between Two Walls
It was after tenants complained about him throwing a ball against the Walgreens parking wall from the complex’s second level. According to Rodrigues, the ball eventually dropped into the small space between the walls sometime later and the man fell as he tried to retrieve it with a stick. The 12-15 ft fall left Mike wedged horizontally between the walls, which were reported to be 7-9 inches apart.
Yelling For Help
Passerbys heard him yell for help and they alerted authorities at 2:06 pm. The Honolulu Fire Department immediately dispatched five units staffed with 20 personnel to the site. Rescuers, who communicated with Mike the entire time, initially tried lowering a cable to him from above but he was unable to grab it…
The Rescue Involved 20 Men
The large team of firefighters spent three hours working with saws, drills, and jackhammers trying to free Mike. It took a lot of manpower and the rescue attracted a large crowd of onlookers.
Last Chance
In a last-ditch effort, firefighters on the Makaloa Street side of Walgreens used concrete-cutting saws to break through one of the walls below where the man was stuck. They sliced through one foot of concrete and rebar to create an opening that was approximately 3 feet high and 4 feet wide…
Successful Rescue
Finally, the firefighters were able to successfully extricate Mike through the opening at 5:23 pm. “It started as a tile wall and then a full concrete slab and then supported with rebar,” Captain Albert Mccollum of the Honolulu Fire Department explained. He added that the men had to cut through all that to get to Mike’s location.
Recovering
Mike, whose full name is Michael Anthony Maggiacomo, was taken to a hospital following the rescue in serious condition. Thankfully, he did not suffer any major injuries and is recovering from the ordeal. While getting yourself stuck trapped between walls is not the most common, it does happen. Just last week, a two-year-old became trapped under a massive pile of rocks in Portsmouth, New Hampshire…
Little Harbor Road
Authorities responded to Little Harbor Road after a distressed call came in about a 2-year-old trapped under a pile of rocks. When officers arrived, they found the boy pinned between many large slabs of stone.
It Started As Innocent Playtime
The boy had been playing on top of one of the stone slabs with his grandfather when the slab he was standing on dislodged. Then, the child fell forward and was trapped by the slab, which eventually rested on his tiny head. It was a highly delicate situation for rescuers…
Highly Delicate Situation
Since one of the slabs was resting on the child’s head, it could have given way at any moment, which would put the child at risk for sustaining the full weight of the stone on his head. “Essentially, this child was lying between a slab of granite with another on top of him and any more of that pile could cause catastrophic results,” said Portsmouth PD Sergeant Kuffer Kaltenborn.
The Stones Could Have Easily Crushed Him
The stone slabs the boy got stuck under are intended to make up the foundation of a seawall that was currently under construction. Each slab was estimated to weigh several hundreds of pounds. But luckily, the responding officer turned out to have previous experience as a professional stone mason…
His Parents Kept Him Calm
The officer enlisted the help of the fire department and due to a coordinated effort, the child was freed from the weight of the stones after only nine minutes. Thankfully, the child’s parents arrived were able to keep him calm as first responders worked their way around the stone slabs and rescued him.
Another Successful Rescue
Afterward, the boy was given emergency medical treatment at the scene to evaluate him for any traumas and then transported to the Portsmouth Regional Hospital where he is still being treated for serious, but non-life threatening injuries.
