It’s an amazing stroke of luck that saved a life.
A one in a million chance.
So many “ifs”.
If Konrad Lightner and his wife, Jennifer, did not have Sunday as their moving day.
If the mattress had been lighter.
If the lift had been working properly.
If any of these had eventuated, this story might be about a tragedy.
Instead the stars aligned.
The move was on schedule.
The mattress was a pain in the arse to move and took two to lift.
The damn lift was stuck again.
And a three-year old boy is alive and well.
Los Angeles couple Konrad and Jennifer Lightner were half way through their move when they saw a three-year-old boy climbing out of a third-storey window.
The toddler had been happily throwing his toys out of the window after he pushed the screen out and then he decided to follow.
His parents told KTLA-TV that they were in another room playing with his sister and did not hear the commotion.
Terrifyingly, the boy then clung on to a telephone wire outside the window.
Jennifer and Konrad were moving their mattress through the alley and desperately called the police to notify them of the unfolding crisis.
“He started crying, and I knew he couldn’t make it back to the window, so I just started getting ready for him to let go,” Konrad Lightner said to the TV station.
The mattress they held was his only hope.
Forty gut-wrenching seconds later, he fell.
Amazingly, he fell straight into the arms of Konrad and right onto that fateful mattress.
“He was pretty high. So I didn’t want to have my body against his and straight-up catch him. So I kinda grabbed him and kinda fell with him a little bit and went into the box spring. When he landed he cried a little bit,” Konrad told South California Public Radio.
The boy’s parents were told by a neighbour what had occurred. The child was taken to hospital and incredibly released unharmed.
What is hard to fathom about this is that earlier that day, Konrad and Jennifer had been trapped in the building’s lift for thirty minutes so they were never meant to be there at that time.
His mother, Morgane Milligan told the The Los Angeles Times that “she would never be able to repay the couple for their actions”.
Konrad, a Disney animator who worked on the movie Frozen, said the episode had not stopped him and his wife from wanting children.
He might just make sure the windows are safer.
An incredible twist of fate, and a family with the happiest of fairy tale ending of all.
Top Comments
So nice to see a happy ending on the news!
:)
wow... that's a very happy ending.. would have been great to witness that catch! Still what a close call!! Those parents are VERY lucky... they'll have to watch him extra carefully now! That kid is going to have some great stories to tell at parties..