MADISON, Wis. — A curious 2-year-old Wisconsin boy got more than he bargained for when he climbed into a claw machine at an ice cream shop looking to snag a plushie.
The boy got stuck in the machine at the Milin’s ice cream shop on April 23 and had to be rescued by Madison firefighters, WISC reported. The boy’s father dutifully recorded the crying child, who was finally comforted after he was set free from the machine.
The clip went viral on TikTok.
The Gutierrez family regularly visits the ice cream shop, but this time, Lohan Gael Gutierrez walked up to the machine and squeezed through an opening in the machine, WISC reported.
He was among the plushies and seemingly happy before he realized there was no way out. And then the tears began to fall.
@cbs58milwaukee A young child found himself stuck in a #clawmachine at a restaurant in #Madison, #Wisconsin Thankfully, the Madison Fire Department quickly responded to help get the boy out safely. #rescue #childrescue #fyp ♬ original sound - CBS 58 Milwaukee
The boy’s father, Yefri Gutierrez Gamez, recorded the rescue and posted the video to social media.
“We had never ever noticed that before,” Gutierrez told WISC in Spanish. “Children are always a little restless, but this was the occasion and it happened and I felt a little scared.”
The boy’s father said he was surprised the video took off on social media. He said he posted the clip at about 9 p.m. CT on April 23, and views quickly soared.
“To be honest, I was truly surprised ... almost immediately, it took off, it was nearing nearly 10,000 views,” Gutierez told WISC. “By 3 a.m., it had reached 30,000, and I was absolutely astonished when, by 9 a.m., it had already surpassed 200,000,” he said.
The video now has more than 1 million views and hundreds of thousands of comments, according to the television station.
Not everyone was amused by the pickle the child got himself into, with the video receiving mixed reviews from viewers.
Claira Torres Villaneuva, who works at the ice cream shop, said she had to call 911 after the boy had been crying for five minutes.
“If you know he gets into things, keep an eye on him,” she told WISC. “Like, how could you not hear that he was in there?”
Gutierrez said he understood why he was being criticized for not keeping tabs on the toddler.
The viral video has received mixed reactions online, with some viewers criticizing the parents for not watching their child closely enough.
“On one hand we feel happy, but on the other hand we’ve also been attacked a lot, with people saying we’re irresponsible because of what happened,” Gutierrez said, adding that he was grateful for the firefighters’ efforts in rescuing the boy. “But only a parent really knows what you sometimes go through with kids.”
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