Minnesota boy falls 10 feet into septic tank

MINNEAPOLIS - Seven-year-old Noah Laehn can't give enough high-fives and fist bumps to those who pulled him out of a septic tank in his aunt's yard, reports WCCO, the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis.

Noah fell 10 feet into the tank while he and his cousin were playing Monday evening at his aunt's home in Blue Earth, Minn.

"I was running," he told WCCO's Reg Chapman. "And then I stepped on that, and then I fell."

Noah described the inside of the tank as "creepy and dark and stinky."

Deputy Pat Campbell of the Faribault County Sheriff's Office was the first to arrive after Noah's aunt called 911.

"When I got up to the tank, I saw that he was OK," Campbell said. "He was holding onto a pole....We just needed to hurry up and get him home."

Video from Campbell's squad car shows the rescue, as responders first tried to lower a rope into the tank, but in the end found a ladder to be more useful.

"I had to climb up a little bit," Noah said. "And then it was too tight, so they pulled me...back up."

His aunt, Chelsea Haledik, said she was just happy her nephew got out.

"Tears of joy," she said.

Noah was not hurt, and after a quick check from doctors, he was back to playing in the yard.

He also took several hot showers.