RESCUE
GLITCH

The 911 call from a concerned citizen couldn’t have been clearer. A man was laying near the St. Petersburg, FL, Fire Rescue headquarters, bleeding from the face. The brave men of Rescue Unit 5 jumped into their truck, opened the door of the parking bay and peeled out on their way to another selfless act. Then they felt the truck bump over something. Turns out the concerned citizen could have been clearer after all. Their man in distress wasn’t just near the fire station; he was in its driveway, smack dab in the path of Rescue 5.

Ted Allen Lenox, a 41-year-old homeless man, was the unfortunate bump in the road that the two-man rescue team failed to see in their path. He was caught by the truck’s undercarriage and pulled under its rear wheels, where he was found pinned by the truck’s occupants when they stopped to see what they’d hit. St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Lt. Joel Granata explained that the design of the 10-ton medical vehicle makes it impossible for its occupants to see the ground in front of them. Lenox, originally just drunk and bloody, currently remains in critical condition.

by SCOTT SAXON