An adventurous three-year-old has been rescued from a claw machine in a Queensland shopping centre after crawling up the prize dispenser in search of toys.
Police posted a video of the carefree child, named Ethan, surrounded by a mountain of Hello Kitty plushies as officers pondered how to get him out.
Officers responded to reports the child was trapped in the claw machine at Capalaba shopping centre at 7.15pm on Sunday.
Police video of the scene shows Ethan, who was wearing a Power Rangers shirt, appearing unfazed and in no rush to be rescued.
Nevertheless, Ethan followed police instructions, crawling over the toys to get out of the way and covering his eyes as officers shattered the glass and freed him.
Ethan was then returned safely to his family, with an officer joking “you won a prize, which one do you want?”
Ethan’s father, Timothy Hopper, told reporters on Thursday it was “unbelievable” how quickly his son got inside the claw machine after he had turned his back for a “split second’ while out grocery shopping.
“He loves claw machines … As he always does, he opened up the flap to be an opportunist. Then, within a split second, he crawled into the machine, the door closed behind him. He stood up and realised what happened and he was king of the mountain.”
Hopper said his son was having “the time of his life” inside the machine, where he stayed for about 10-15 minutes.
“I messaged my old man and he asked me how many two-dollar coins do we have. It was quite funny,” he said.
“I’ve got a bit of negative feedback over social media [but] kids are going to be kids, they can move in the blink of an eye.”
Hopper said he called the claw machine company at the time, who were perplexed at what was happening.
“They were asking me, ‘How much money have I put in the machine? Is the money stuck in the machine?’ My response was, ‘The only thing stuck in the machine is my child, I would love to have him back.’”
Snr const Stuart Power said in his 11-year policing career he’d never seen a similar incident.
“When we got the call there was a bit of a smile in the car. Both [of us] as fathers, thinking what our boys would do,” Power said.
“Kids are kids. My boy’s four and I’m surprised he hasn’t done similar.”
A spokesperson for the Retail First Group said it was the first time such an incident had occurred at one of their 21 shopping centres in south-east Queensland.
The spokesperson said the child wasn’t in the machine for long, with security, police and emergency services all attending quickly.
“Obviously, they smashed the glass, so that machine has been removed,” the spokesperson said.
“We are in discussions with the vendor of the claw machines just to look at measures that we can put in place to avoid this happening in the future.”
