Mysterious voice leads to missing man stuck in storm drain, Georgia firefighters say
A man with autism was missing for hours before he was found trapped in a storm drain, Georgia officials say.
And it was all thanks to someone who heard a mysterious voice under the parking lot of a Sherwin-Williams Paint Store on Tuesday, the Savannah Morning News reports.
Savannah firefighters say they rushed to the scene, armed with maps of the storm drain system, according to WSAV and other media outlets.
They decided breaking open the sewer grate was the easiest way to reach the person who was underneath, WTGS reports.
Photos show sparks flying from tools as firefighters cut through the metal storm drain cover, according to a Facebook post from the Savannah Fire Department.
After opening the hole, rescuers say they found Phillip Cater, 23, and brought him to safety.
The harrowing rescue came after Cater went missing in Savannah overnight Monday, the city’s police department posted on Twitter. Officers issued an alert after they said he was last seen near a grocery store.
About 17 hours later, another person was nearby, waiting for work on his car, WTOC reports.
“So just like everybody else, we get impatient, we walk around the parking lot,” Joseph Bandy of the fire department told WTOC. “And he happened to hear this guy speak out, and went over there to check it out and actually saw him down in the drain.”
Cater wasn’t able to tell officials how he got to the spot, but “the only known point of entry was a drainage canal over 600 yards away from the scene,” according to WSAV.
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Mysterious voice leads to missing man stuck in storm drain, Georgia firefighters say."
