Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Florida Woman swallowed by sinkhole in her backyard . . . Again

Call 911 and then throw the phone away.  It might sound like a ridiculous plan to get rescued, but for one woman in Florida her lucky phone toss led to her rescue.

The woman, Carla Chapman of Plant City, Florida was working in her backyard when she fell through the surface and into a sinkhole.  She had her cell phone on her, but the sinkhole created terrible reception and she kept getting disconnected when she tried calling for help.  Finally she got the idea to dial 911 and then throw her phone up out of the hole back into her yard where there would be a cleaner signal.

The gambit worked, the 911 call went through, and a police officer responded to her home, eventually finding Carla trapped in the backyard sinkhole.  Additional rescuers were summoned and they worked to get her free.

As an added twist to the story, this wasn't first time Carla got trapped in a sinkhole in her backyard.  In 2010 another sinkhole on the same property also tried to swallow her but she was fortunately rescued by a neighbor. 

 

Story sources: 
http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/article/184072/250/Woman-rescued-after-swallowed-by-sinkhole-
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=131394

7 comments:

  1. Wow, talk about bad luck, good thing she was clever like that. I think it's time to move though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dang, that sounds like a scary experience.

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow that must have been super scary :O what a nightmare. quick thinking to throw the cell phone

    i bet she has a newfound appreciation for life

    ReplyDelete
  4. My godz, the size of that hole is actually really small in diameter. She was quite unlucky (then lucky.)
    "She was eating sand and mud."
    Blech.
    That's messed up that it happened twice.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Maybe she should sort her back yard?

    ReplyDelete

Hey everyone, feel free to comment, but be aware that this is meant to be a fun, educational blog. Comments are moderated for crude language and/or other objectionable material and will be deleted as needed.