Authorities say a man is lucky to be alive after spending two days stuck in a piece of farm equipment at a California vineyard.
The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday in a Facebook post that the incident could have ended tragically if someone didn’t call to report a suspicious vehicle on the private property in Santa Rosa.
The sheriff’s office says a deputy responded to the scene and located the vehicle, but there was no occupant. Upon further inspection though, the officer reportedly spotted a hat resting on a nearby piece of equipment and went over to investigate.
The officer discovered that the occupant of the vehicle had “inexplicably” decided to climb into the shaft of a “vineyard fan” and became stuck inside, according to the sheriff’s office.
“He had been stuck there for two days before we found him,” wrote the sheriff’s office.
The local fire department responded and was, fortunately, able to extricate the man out of the fan shaft.
When interviewed, the man reportedly told officers that 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,” the sheriff’s office wrote.
The man wasn’t arrested because he required medical treatment, but officers say they’ll be recommending charges of trespassing and drug possession, as well as violations of both a probation case and a pending case for which he’s currently out of custody on pre-trial release.
