Authorities say that a would-be home invasion suspect got stuck in a chimney while attempting to rob a Silver Spring, Maryland, resident’s home.
What are the details?
Montgomery County firefighters arrived at the home around 5:30 a.m. Jan. 8 to assist a home invasion suspect, who remains unnamed at the time of this reporting, in a chimney extrication.
The home’s residents reportedly awoke during the early hours of Saturday morning to hear what they described as a knocking noise coming from inside their walls.
Upon realizing that there was something stuck in the chimney, the residents called police for assistance.
First responders rushed to the scene, only to determine that an unnamed 24-year-old male was stuck inside the home’s chimney after attempting to gain unlawful access.
Firefighters were said to have worked for more than 90 minutes to free the subject from the wall.
“The call was originally dispatched as a residential burglary call in progress,” a spokesperson for the Montgomery County Police Department said, according to a report from WTOP-TV.
When police first arrived on the scene, they heard a “human voice coming from inside the fireplace, in the chimney.”
The man’s feet, according to the report, were visible from inside the fireplace.
It’s not clear at the time of this reporting how the suspect got stuck inside the chimney.
Video obtained of the bizarre scene shows firefighters removing the resident’s wall brick by brick in an attempt to free the suspect from his narrow prison.
The suspect sustained minor injuries in connection with the incident.
The station noted that local authorities are looking to charge the suspect with fourth-degree burglary charges.
MCPD spokeswoman Shiera Goff said that as of Sunday, the suspect had not been charged.
“He was taken to an area hospital and a request for charges [was] filed on Thursday,” Goff said.