LINCOLN, Neb. -- A 3-year-old boy is safe after he was removed from a stuffed animal claw crane machine in Nebraska.
Around 5:30 Monday evening, the boy's mother took a bathroom break and came back to find her son missing. At some point, the boy made his way across the street to Madsen's Bowling & Billiards and apparently crawled into the "Bear Claw" vending machine through the prize door.
"There's like a 3-year-old child inside the machine just playing with stuffed animals, just throwing them around," said Rachell Hildreth, who saw the boy at Madsen's. "There was probably 25 people surrounding him and he didn't notice anybody. He was just inside, playing with the stuffed animals."
Employees at Madsen's Bowling & Billiards didn't have the key to unlock the machine, so they had to call the vendor. They also called police when they couldn't find either of the boy's parents.
The boy was safely removed from the machine. Police didn't cite his mother because she contacted police as soon as she realized the boy was missing.
