Kips Bay Resident Gets Stuck Inside A Wall Of His Own Apartment Building

KIPS BAY, NY — At 12:05 a.m. early Tuesday the fire department got a call about a man stuck in a vent, according to FDNY.

Calling it an "unusual incident" to Patch, the fire department said that a 30-year-old man "slid down a five-story ventilation shaft" in a seven-story building on E. 26 St., "becoming lodged on the first floor."

According to the New York Daily News, the man had just moved into a fourth-floor apartment, and "was hanging out with some friends on the roof when he decided to return to his apartment." But instead of taking the stairs, he decided to take a short-cut through a ventilation duct.

Once in, he slid down until settling behind the wall of an apartment belonging to Gjyste (Julie) Margilaj, 33, who told the New York Daily News that that "she heard a massive crash in her kitchen and panicked but then decided to investigate."

Margilaj said that the man said he couldn't breathe, and that at first she "thought he was playing a joke."

Fire fighters finally arrived and tried to get in through two different apartments simultaneously.

"The shaft was so small the patient's body took up the entire void," said FDNY Battalion Chief Patrick Tansey in a statement posted on Facebook. "So power tools were out of the question."

"We used tin snips (a tool used to cut metal) and dulled all the edges before we took him out."

The man was out by 12:45 and taken to Bellevue Hospital with minor injuries.

Photo Courtesy of FDNY.