Lost and Found: Toddler Inside Claw Machine

Just how would you feel when you found out that your son got lost in your very own home?

This is what a mother Ashley Ireland of Lincoln, Nebraska feels when he emerges from the bathroom on Monday and discovered that her three-year old son, Kael was nowhere to be found.

In her desperate search, the mom dialed 911 and reported his lost son. "It was the most scared I've ever been," Ireland said in Journal Star report.

The mom stated that her apartment door has always been locked but this was the first time Kael had wandered off their home.

At the same time, a commotion happened in Madsen's Bowling and Billiards just across the street from Ireland's home.

Her son had been spotted inside the claw machine happily playing with the stuffed toys unmindful of the fuss outside.

About 25 customers in the arcade watched Kael from outside in total bewilderment trying to figure out how he ended up inside. The boy must have crawled up through the only hole where the prizes are being dropped.

The bartender, Rachel Hildreth was alerted about the boy being inside the claw machine. In a news report from Journal Star, Hildreth stated, "I really don't think he noticed any of us outside the machine because he was just picking up stuffed animals and putting them down where they come out of."

But there is no way for him to get out through the same hole where he came in even when using coins and maneuvering the joystick to drop him off.

Good thing, another Madsen employee Jim Lakey quickly came to the rescue with the claw machine owner VVS. The machine was opened with the key and the toddler was safely taken outside the claw machine.

The reluctant toddler was given one of the stuffed toy inside the claw machine as a gift. "He was just having fun in there. I don't think he wanted to get out," said Hildreth.

The toddler was brought back to her mom who breathed a sigh of relief that their lost and found son was safe.