The manager of a Blackjack Pizza store in north Denver got the surprise of his life Friday morning when he found a man’s legs hanging from a vent above the restaurant’s oven and a voice yelling, “Help me, help me.”
The man — who is 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds — had been stuck in the duct for five to six hours, he told rescuers from the Denver Police and Fire departments.
Police spokesman Sonny Jackson said that the outcome for the intruder, who is being held for investigation of burglary and criminal mischief, was much better than it could have been. Jackson said he was lucky the manager came in early and that the oven didn’t come on automatically.
“He was fortunate,” Jackson said. “He could have asphyxiated. He could have died.”
Jackson identified the suspect as 21-year-old Andrew Baca. He was at Denver Health Medical Center on Friday on a jail hold.
Jackson said police got a call from the manager of the restaurant, at 3535 Quebec St., about 6:45 a.m.
Baca suffered minor cuts and abrasions, said Phil Champagne, spokesman for the Denver Fire Department.
It took firefighters 20 to 25 minutes to extricate him from the vent, Champagne said, and Baca’s clothes were removed during the rescue effort.
On Thursday, an electrician working at a Steamboat Springs restaurant died when he crawled into an exhaust vent and apparently was asphyxiated.
He was identified as Michael Goodspeed, 49, of Aurora. Goodspeed and two others were spending the night at the Steamboat restaurant, and he was apparently locked out. He died when he tried to get in through the vent.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
