Unfazed toddler is rescued from claw machine after getting stuck inside, horrifying parents
A fearless two-year-old got stuck inside a claw machine at a Missouri recreation center—but he didn’t seem to mind, happily playing with a ball as rescuers worked to get him out.
Margaret King was at the Soccer Dome in Webster Groves on February 7, watching her older son play, when she briefly looked away from her toddler, Cooper. The little boy had been experimenting with the controls of a claw machine, according to First Alert 4.
“I literally glanced over there. He was pretending to play with the claw machine,” King said. “I looked away for maybe 15 seconds.”
In that short span, she heard a scream and turned to see Cooper trapped inside the arcade crane game.
Despite the unusual predicament, Cooper appeared completely unfazed, his mother said. “If anyone knew my son, Cooper, they would totally understand that he would do something like this,” King said.
“You could see him laughing and tossing balls everywhere. We were like, ‘Cooper, try to come back down,’ and he just shook his head.”
Realizing Cooper was safe but unable to guide him out, King called 911. First responders arrived within minutes, but the toddler stayed inside until a vending company worker came with a key.
Cooper spent nearly 20 minutes inside the machine while onlookers captured photos and videos, which quickly went viral on social media.
One widely shared clip shows Cooper smiling and playing with stuffed animals as first responders figured out how to free him. “I didn’t think it was going to go this big,” his mother said.
After the video went viral, some online viewers asked why she didn’t use the claw mechanism to scoop Cooper out.
King joked, “I was going to comment back that I didn’t have enough change since he used it all. In today’s world, everyone needs someone funny on their TV—and what’s not funny about a 2-year-old playing in a claw machine?”
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