TINLEY PARK, Ill. (STMW) – Three police officers in southwest suburban Tinley Park rescued two girls who fell through the ice late Thursday afternoon at a retention pond near a condominium complex, authorities said.
The girls, in their early teens, were in good condition and were taken to South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest for precautionary reasons, according to Pat Carr, the village’s director of emergency management and 911 communications.
Police said the girls were in a few feet of water for five to seven minutes, about 20 feet from the shore near the Edgewater Walk complex, which is off Lakewood Drive south of 167th Street.
The girls’ heads were above water when police entered the pond, forming a human chain to remove the girls and drag them to safety, police said.
Police did not disclose the girls’ ages or their identities as of Thursday night.
A neighbor saw the girls in the pond and called 911 at 4:53 p.m., Carr said. He said five police officers and 14 firefighters responded, and a rescue boat also was brought to the scene.
A resident of the condo complex, who declined to give her name, said she was a cousin of one of the girls, who she said is 13 and was with a friend when they fell through the ice. The cousin said she did not know about the incident until the teen’s mother called and said the teen would be needing dry clothes.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
