A patient believed to be under the influence of drugs caused chaos at a California hospital when he climbed into the ceiling of an emergency room, got stuck and had to be freed by firefighters.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the unnamed man was a walk-in patient who entered San Antonio regional hospital and was last seen on surveillance footage entering a restroom.
“Once officers got there, we confirmed on surveillance footage that the subject was seen going into the restroom and never coming out,” Upland police said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Police discovered he had broken through ceiling tiles, squeezed into the crawl space above them and was located somewhere above the ER.
“Due to the extremely confined space, maze of wires, plumbing, HVAC lines, etc, officers had to use a pole camera to look into the ceiling. Within moments, the subject was located on top of a large HVAC unit and wedged under a steel beam in complete darkness,” police said.
Firefighters were then called after the man admitted he was firmly wedged in place and could not free himself. Extricating the man took an hour and caused $5,000 in damage.
Hospital staff reportedly were able to work around the incident and there was no interruption to emergency services. The man was arrested for felony vandalism.