A California man found the best hide and seek spot ever, but there was one problem. Nobody else was playing with him. For more than two days the man was stuck inside a fan shaft he entered for reasons unknown.
On Tuesday, the Sanoma Sheriff’s Office received a complaint of a suspicious vehicle parked on private property in the 2800 block of Piner Rd. A deputy responded and located the vehicle, but not the occupant.
The vehicle was parked in a location that made no sense. The deputy saw a hat resting on a nearby piece of farm equipment and went over to investigate. The deputy found way more than the hat. The occupant of the vehicle had, inexplicably, decided to climb into the shaft of the vineyard fan and became completely stuck inside the shaft. He had been stuck there for two days before we found him.
The Fire Department responded and was able to extricate the man out of the fan shaft. When interviewed, the man indicated he liked to take pictures of the engines of old farm equipment. After a thorough investigation which revealed the farm equipment wasn’t antique and the man had far more methamphetamine than camera equipment, the motivation to climb into the fan shaft remains a total mystery.
“We elected to not arrest him as he required medical treatment after his unintended multi-day stay in the fan shaft,” the department said. “The Sheriff’s Office will be recommending charges of trespassing and drug possession, as well as violations of both his probation case and the pending case for which he is currently out of custody on pre-trial release. Lucky for this guy the citizen called in to report his vehicle, otherwise this story ends with a far more tragic outcome. Instead, he should make a full recovery and hopefully be wiser for the experience.”