I have seen it in movies and cartoons, but don't think I have ever seen it in real life or caught in any kind of way on camera. In New York, a 7 year old girl crawled out of her third story window on to a window air conditioner and started dancing on it. She tripped and fell and probably would have died except for a bus driver who had been watching. He managed to catch her. The girl suffered no injuries, but the bus driver did tear a tendon in his bicep. That is a lot of weight dropping on you from 30 feet. Can you imagine how nervous the guy must have been? It is not that easy to catch something from 30 feet that is moving fast and is heavy. Go drop a watermelon from the third floor of a building and see if you can catch it. Then add about 40 pounds to it and see how you do. And that is not even a real life you are trying to catch. if for some reason the video doesn't load, you can click here.
Who was watching that child? Thank Xenu the bus driver was there!
ReplyDeleteYes indeed Vicki! Thank xenu for that bus driver
ReplyDeleteOh Vicki, now that I have had a giggle, I can start my day "Thank Xenu" :)
ReplyDeleteI saw the guy interviewed on this morning's news, and he was so nice, gracious and thankful that he was able to help her. And he's handsome, too! (IMO)
ReplyDeleteMay God bless his heart and soul.
I hope his arm heals up 100%.
So glad that the bus driver was there, and I'm not a parent, but at seven years old, shouldn't that kid have known better? Sounds like stellar parenting at work...
ReplyDeleteThe mother was so defensive in the interview that she didn't even bother thanking the gentleman who saved her daughter's life. Didn't even mention him. She made it about her being a "good parent" and a "defective" air conditioner. Ugh, some people. That man is a hero!
ReplyDeleteHe is not going to have full use of that arm for quite awhile and I hope it doesn't hurt his ability to do his job, but the most important thing is, he saved that little girl's life.
Madlyb, what a bitch. She'll probably try to sue him for slander or manhandling her child or some shit.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yeah, 7 is old enough to know better.
i think he was also a neighbor. and the today show said the girl has autism so she didn't really understand what she was doing
ReplyDeleteI was just about to say that MadLyb! She blamed the store for selling her a defective air conditioner? They all have sides like that. My dad used to tape ours with duct tape. This mom just makes me nauseous and I hope is investigated. And the bus driver shows us that even in bad neighborhoods there is Good if you look for it.
ReplyDeleteDid you guys hear that the child is autistic?
ReplyDeleteAutistic + I wont call her names but a mom like "that" = not much hope
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ReplyDeleteIf she's autistic, the mother is an even bigger idiot. She'll definitely try to sue somebody.
ReplyDeleteuhh did u not hear that the kid is AUTISTIC?? obviously she WON'T know better.
ReplyDeletebut that mom is super ungrateful and self-absorbed. "and... i was with my son" WELL WHAT ABOUT YOUR DISABLED CHILD?!?! jesus lady!!!! JESUSSSSS!!
Calm down, zombiecrush - I had NOT heard that the girl is autistic. But I do hope that child protective services investigates this mother.
ReplyDeleteThat mother is a little defensive...sheesh. She should be thanking the good samaritan that her daughter is alive and not injured in any way, not trying to defend her (lack of) parenting skills.
ReplyDeleteAnd LOL @Vicki. Thank Xenu hahahaha.
I wouldn't jump the gun that the mom is a neglectful parent. If she wasn't in the room with the girl while she was napping, how would she know? But she shouldn't have blamed the a/c manufacturer - that is a croc of shit.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wiley little girl! I bet the mom has her hands full.
I'm certain that when mom contacts a lawyer to launch her lawsuit against the AC manufacturer and retail outlet, this responsible jurist will explain that AC units are not manufactured up to code as child window barriers.
ReplyDeleteIt's very, very hard to take care of an autistic child. It's even MORE difficult if there is more than one child. Add to that being a single parent, and WOW, I can't imagine how hard that must be.
ReplyDeleteSo, here's the fact: there are too many poor single women having children outside of marriage, and too many men getting women pregnant without any intention of marrying them and abandoning all responsibility to those kids.
I got a PhD in poverty policy in the 1990s. At that time it was discussed in hushed tones that it was not acceptable to address the poverty study elephant in the room: if you have (especially >1) children when you're young and unmarried, without training or job skills relying on public assistance for financial support, and try to raise them without a second parent, you're likely going to be poor all your life and your children are highly likely to be poor too. And neglect is likely to be rampant.
Those who did try to speak frankly about this were shushed and shamed.
Are there exceptions? Of course. But by and large, what you see, what *I* saw, was case after case after case of horrifyingly bad situations for the children of poor single uneducated mothers.
@figgy - you're right of course, but in this case, evidently the father is involved - the story mentions the police interviewing the mother AND the father. Interesting - mom won't show HER face, but gave them a picture of the child. What a bitch.
ReplyDeleteAnd agree with the above - that's the way those air conditioners are - I've had one myself and I'd bet there's some kind of warning on the box or in the instructions.
Ugh. I don't blame the mother for not knowing her child had figured out how to get outside on the air conditioner. What parent here can honestly say they sit and watch their children sleep during a nap? Come on.
ReplyDeleteBut, it is unfortunate that she's immediately on "it was a defective air conditioner". Blech. Calling the lawyer as we speak, no doubt. It's not defective. This is why I hate civil suits.
@figgy - I have worked with poverty populations throughout my career as well(though I will not claim as much experience as you), but I have seen the same thing. Very rarely is the truth spoken about this and those who do are spoken down. I know everyone gets all over conservatives "judging" people who make these choices, but this conservative doesn't like seeing children raised with no chance in life. There is nothing sadder than seeing children in these poverty cycles. I know one family personally, through my current job, where everyone from the matriarch down to her great-grandchildren are on welfare. No husbands, no baby daddies, just bad choices, hand out for government assistance, no drive to succeed. It is just sad and I would love to see this cycle broken.
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as this mother goes, she is now looking for one thing - a lawsuit settlement from the store and Frigidaire. No thanks to the wonderful man who saved her child, nothing. God bless Mr. St. Bernard.
After my first child was born I was in a shared room, and the mom in the next bed over was on the phone with a friend talking enthusiastically about how much more money she was going to get from the state now that she had 2 kids from 2 dads she wasn't married to. It made me sick. Sorry if it offends people, but I actually think some people might show better judgment if they were subjected to a little judgment.
ReplyDelete@Meg, I heard it all the time at my last job. That along with 'section 8' and how to set it all up.It was disheartening, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteThe odd thing was, the company that I worked for ended up busting some of these same employees due to their attempts to falsify their own financial records.
Everything you need to know about that "mother" was made crystal clear by her statements.
ReplyDeleteThe link didn't work for me so I haven't seen anything of this but was the ma perhaps in a lil shock? People say, act, seem like they aren't really like when they are in shock or still coming to terms with something...
ReplyDeleteAnd YAY for this man! How many people actually save a life? I hope he's feeling pretty darn fabulous today.
ReplyDeletewow are you people nasty. The girl was autistic and supposedly napping. Don't talk until you've lived in the mom's shoes. I have for 18 years and believe me I love my son to death but it's no picnic. They get into things you wouldn't even think of and have no fear. It did not take long for that little girl to get out onto the a/c and fall. I'm sure the news edited what the mom said to cut it down to sound bites. and in this world where everyone judges, I don't blame her for not showing her face. Everyone should be made to live with a severely autistic child for a month and then let's see what you have to say.....sorry but this pisses me off
ReplyDeleteI feel like I was saved as a 7-8 year old, I hope that man knows how special he is, mine involved kids playing tiggy round a wharf while the ferry was coming in and me getting pushed right before where the ferry was coming in, a lil space too, I grew up on a lil island and had to go to another island for school each day I knew how to swim before I could walk but it freaked the hell out of me at the time
ReplyDeleteWhy are people assuming the mother didn't thank the man?Just because they didn't tape or air it happening, does not mean she didn't do it.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought was, "the kid might not have been injured by the fall, but if i were her parent I'd BEAT HER FRIGGIN' ASS for that!" but then I found out that she is autistic.
ReplyDeleteI am going to cut the mother some slack and hope that her thanks to the good Samaritan were edited, and if she *does* happen to be sue crazy, she doesn't have a leg to stand on because her daughter wasn't injured.
I got the impression the interview with the mother was conducted pretty aggressively, and the story was obviously heavily slanted towards painting her as an unfit mother via passive-aggressive language. Then they just aired the parts where she was answering accusative questions from the interviewer. It's pretty interesting how incredibly effective this tactic appears to be, given a lot of the commenters' responses here. A child she thought was asleep managed to get in trouble within mere seconds, while she was watching her other child. Wow, arrest that woman! Seriously, the report was incredibly bitchy and IMO probably kind of racist. If this were a story about a white lady in Park Slope it'd be all about how tragic it is that even a great mother can't watch their kid every second and look how fast trouble can happen, poor lady! Y'all are buying too much into the spin.
ReplyDeleteYay Bus Driver!!!! Let's start a website and send THIS guy on a vacation!
ReplyDeleteKids do crazy things and I don't blame her mom--it sounds like she got away from her. Thank god this ended so well for them.
First, that good samaritan is a real hero. Not many people could or would catch a 70+ lb child hurtling from so high. I'd like to think it's something we all would try to do, but frankly in my condition I'd get creamed. Thank goodness that strong man was there to catch her.
ReplyDeleteSecond, the local news interviewed someone who went up to the apartment before the girl fell and was pounding on the door trying to get the parents' attention, but no one ever answered the door nor went to help their own kid on the A/C even with all the commotion (people hollering at her to go back inside). That's all kinda odd and I was surprised to hear the mom was even home at the time.
Hopefully she won't file a ridiculous lawsuit AND she better have given that wonderful man a huge hug.
I think I see Gloria Allred peeking out from behind the bushes...
ReplyDelete