3-year-old rescued from claw machine at shopping mall

A 3-year-old child was found inside a claw machine after climbing into it to look for toys.

According to a report by Associated Press, Australian police had to rescue Ethan after being trapped inside the arcade equipment filled with Hello Kitty plush toys. 

Queensland authorities uploaded a video of the incident on X, with the caption: "Ethan and the Police: 1; Claw Machine: 0."

Ethan and the Police: 1
Claw Machine: 0

Police were called in to rescue the adventurous Ethan, who had crawled up into a toy machine at a Capalaba shopping centre on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/E7szqYznjI

— Queensland Police (@QldPolice) January 31, 2024

According to Ethan's dad Timothy Hopper, his son suddenly disappeared and went inside the glass-walled box "in a split second" while they were taking a stroll.

"I had zero chance to react to it. It was unbelievable how fast he climbed up there," he said, per the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"I couldn’t help but laugh thinking 'How has this happened?' because he wasn’t hurt, he wasn’t sad, so it was easy to have a laugh when he was having the time of his life," he recalled. "But then reality sunk in—how am I going to get him out?"

He and his wife kept their cool as they called the company that supplies the equipment. "They were asking me how much money I had put in the machine [and if the money was] stuck in the machine. My response was 'The only thing stuck in the machine is my child, I'd love to have him back,'" he recalled. 

Authorities later arrived at the mall to rescue Ethan. They asked him to close his eyes as they had to break the glass to take him out of the machine.

After the rescue, one of them told the kid: "You won a prize. Which one do you want?"

"He was more excited he was going to get a cuddle from a police officer," Timothy joked.