Police rescue three-year-old boy from claw machine after he crawled inside

Police were forced to smash glass in order to rescue a three-year-old boy who got stuck inside a claw machine after he crawled inside.

The toddler, named Ethan, had crawled up the Hello Kitty prize dispenser based in a shopping centre in Queensland, Australia, on the hunt for toys.

Queensland Police have since shared a video of the tot surrounded in the case of soft toys while officers discussed how they were going to safely remove him. Have a look:

Officers were called to the Capalaba shopping centre at a little after 7pm on Sunday evening (28 January), and found Ethan seemingly totally unbothered by the ordeal.

They instructed him to go to the corner of the machine and cover his eyes before shattering one of the glass doors to set him free.

"You won a prize," joked an officer while Ethan ran over to his family. "Which one do you want?"

Talking about the bizarre situation, Ethan's dad, Timothy Hopper, revealed it was totally 'unbelievable' how quickly his son climbed up inside the machine after turning his back for a 'split second'.

"He loves claw machines..." the dad told reporters. "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."

Queensland Police

Incredibly, little Ethan was having 'the time of his life' while stuck inside the claw machine for around 15 minutes.

Timothy, who called the claw machine company at the time, continued: "I messaged my old man and he asked me how many two-dollar coins do we have. It was quite funny.

"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."

A spokesperson for the Retail First Group has since said this particular situation was the first time such an incident had occurred at one of their 21 shopping centres in south-east Queensland.

The spokesperson said that the child wasn’t in the machine for long, with the likes of security, police and emergency services all attending the scene promptly.

"Obviously, they smashed the glass, so that machine has been removed," the spokesperson added.

"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."

Topics: Australia, News, Real Life, Parenting

Rhiannon Ingle

Rhiannon Ingle is a Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from the University of Manchester in 2021 in English Literature. Alongside her studies, she was the Lifestyle Editor of The Mancunian, the largest student newspaper in the United Kingdom. Her favourite topics to write about include sex and relationships, bizarre lifestyle trends and all things travel.