Boy Rescued After Falling Into Septic Tank

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- 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.

Laehn and his cousin were playing Monday evening near his aunt's home on the 38000 block of 125th Street in Blue Earth, Minn.

"I was running," Laehn said. "And then I stepped on that, and then I fell."

Laehn fell 10 feet into the tank, landing in two feet of mess.  He described the inside of the tank as "creepy and dark and stinky."

Laehn's aunt called 911, and officers from the Faribault County Sheriff's Office responded. Deputy Pat Campbell was the first on the scene.

"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. At first, responders tried to lower a rope down into the tank. In the end, a ladder proved more useful.

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

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

"Tears of joy," she said. "I was very happy."

Laehn wasn't hurt, and after a quick check from doctors at Unity Hospital, he was back to playing in the yard.

He also took several hot showers.