2 young children rescued after sled glides onto thin ice in Michigan
First responders in Michigan saved two children from thin ice after a sled they were on glided too far from the icy snow onto frozen water.
The kids, Bobby, 2, Cora, 4, and Cayden, 13, were taking advantage of the winter snow and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday in their backyard in Shelby, about 70 miles north of Grand Rapids, when the icy conditions caused the sled to go father than it ever had before, their mother, Christine Nazareth-Haupt, wrote on Facebook Monday morning.
Cayden tried to stop the sled, but the ice broke, and he let go so he wouldn't pull his younger siblings into the water with him, Nazareth-Haupt said. The teen fell into a shallow portion of the retention pond and was able to get himself out, Lt. Pat Barnard of the Shelby Township Police Department told ABC News.
Police officers arrived onto the scene within three minutes and firefighters from the Shelby Township Fire Department right after them, Barnard said. The ice rescue team then crawled onto the ice and pulled the kids, who were about 30 yards out, back onto land on the sled they were on, he added.
Although the whole ordeal lasted about 20 minutes, the "rattled" mother admitted that "it felt like hours." She was crying and terrified the entire time, she said.
Cayden was able to remain calm and keep his siblings calm as well.
"Cora was so brave, no tears, and she did her best to keep Bobby still and in the sled while help arrived," Nazareth-Haupt said.
No one was injured during the scare, but Nazareth-Haupt acknowledged that the incident "could have ended so differently."
Cayden has been sledding in the backyard for six years, often with his brother and sister, and the sled would also stop close to the bottom of the slope, Nazareth-Haupt told ABC NEws.
"This has never happened before," she said.
Nazareth-Haupt thanked the "special team" that put their lives in danger to save her babies and posted photos of the children smiling with some of the officers that helped them.
The police department reminded parents to "watch your kids around the ice."
"It only takes a second and things can go from bad to terrible," police wrote on Facebook.
