A 4-year-old boy and a dog were rescued late Monday after falling down a 23-foot well in southwestern Mississippi.
The dog had been in the well in Brookhaven for 1-2 days when the child, Gabe Allbritton, tumbled down it Monday at around 5 p.m. local time (6 p.m. ET).
Linda Allbritton, the boy's mother, said she and her family had never seen the hole before. The hole was in the front yard, where Gabe was playing as his mother and grandmother stood nearby.
"He was running across the yard," she said, when all of a sudden he vanished. "We kept hollering but didn't hear anything.
"It's the worst that can ever happened," she added, saying she can't leave her son out of sight now.
Allbritton said it took them "forever" to find the hole. The dog that was rescued along with Gabe, a poodle, had been missing for 1-2 days, she said.
Rescue workers were able to persuade Gabe to put his hands and legs through a rope, so they could pull him up, by telling him his favorite wrestler, John Cena, was waiting for him once he climbed out. The dog was pulled out soon after Gabe, the Daily Leader newspaper reported.
After he was rescued, the boy was taken to a local hospital by ambulance. Gabe's mom said the boy has bruises and scratches, but no broken bones.
Lincoln County Civil Defense Director Clifford Galey told the Daily Leader newspaper, "We promised him a ride on a fire truck and we're going to give that to him before we leave tonight."
Brookhaven is some 70 miles south of Jackson.
