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Report on a child from Pennsylvania who crawled into a claw toy machine at the mall and the sweet, happy ending.

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-Kimberly Arvin

December 10, 2010

Headline news reported this morning that while at a mall in Pennsylvania, a mother turned her head for a split second as her little girl was glued to the claw machine looking at interesting stuffed animals.  We’ve all been there, right?  “Thank goodness little Johnny or Suzy is safely preoccupied right next to me so I can steal a quick glance at that cute sweater in the window across the way.  If I’m lucky, he/she won’t even ask me for fifty cents because all I have in my purse is a quarter today, and man it would be nice to get out of here without him/her falling down and making a scene.”  But—when Mom turned back around, she saw her adorable little curly, blonde-haired tike inside of the machine!

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The local fire department was able to take part of the glass out from the top of the machine with a crow-bar type tool.  Thankfully, the tot was rescued without injury.  The fireman indicated that the slat the child climbed up in to access the toy bin was much too large, an obvious safety hazard.  When the toddler was asked by the fireman if she had anything she’d like to say following her rescue, she promptly took her binky out of her mouth and said, “Thank you.” 

Moral of the story?  My little boy came running in this morning as I was watching the story and said, “Mommy did you see that little kid was in the claw machine?  I tried that once at the bowling alley!”  Never say never when it comes to your kids and you think it can’t happen to you.