A daring toddler found himself ensnared within a claw machine at a Missouri recreational facility, yet seemed unbothered as he entertained himself with a ball while rescuers worked to extract him.
Margaret King was attending her older son’s soccer game at the Soccer Dome in Webster Groves on February 7 when she momentarily lost track of her younger son, Cooper, who was tinkering with the claw machine’s controls, according to First Alert 4.
“I just glanced over; he was pretending to play with the claw machine,” King shared with the news outlet. “I looked away for maybe 15 seconds.”
In that fleeting moment, King recounted hearing a scream and quickly realized Cooper had managed to climb inside the arcade crane game.
Despite the commotion, the two-year-old seemed entirely unperturbed, his mother noted.
“Anyone familiar with my son, Cooper, would completely understand that this is something he would do,” King remarked.
“You know he’s laughing, throwing balls everywhere. We were like Cooper, try and go back down, and he was like shaking his head.”
Once she realized Cooper was safe but couldn’t guide him out, King said she had no choice but to call 911.
First responders arrived within minutes, but Cooper remained inside until a vending company worker arrived with a key.
The toddler spent nearly 20 minutes inside the machine as onlookers snapped photos and recorded videos that have since gone viral on social media.
A widely shared clip shows Cooper smiling and playing with stuffed animals while first responders searched for a way to free him.
“I didn’t think it was going to go this big,” the tot’s mother said.
Since the video went viral, King said some people online questioned why she didn’t simply use the claw mechanism to scoop Cooper out.
“I was going to comment back that I didn’t have enough change since he used it all,” she quipped.
“In today’s world, everyone needs someone funny on their TV and what’s not funny about a 2-year-old playing in a claw machine?”
