The Guardia Civil rescued a man who had gone down a well in his backyard to cool off – he hadn’t realised that it would be harder to get out than get in.

The incident took place one Sunday at the beginning of last month in Alosno (Huelva). Around 17.00h the emergency services received a call to explain the problem, so they sent a patrol to the address.

When they arrived there was a crowd of neighbours outside. when they made their way into the back yard they saw the mouth of a well protruding about half a metre from the ground.. there was also a rope, anchored to an iron post, hanging down into the well.

Peering down into the well they saw a gentleman, floating in the water, hanging onto the rope in a somewhat agitated state. He was also exhausted and losing his grip on the rope. Within moments of the police arriving the man began to succumb with his head half underwater and spluttering.

The well wasn’t wide enough to lower somebody and bring them both up so the police officers quickly obtained a ladder from a neighbour. It was too short to stand on the bottom of the well, so they had to hang onto the last rung whilst encouraging the man to get his arms through the rungs for a better grip and haul him out.

He was suffering from the beginnings of hypothermia but otherwise none the worse for wear.

He explained that wanted to cool off so he rigged the rope and climbed down without releasing that climbing back up the rope was going to be far from easy and the longer he stayed in the water, the more difficult it became.

The moral of the story is relationships between idiots and wells end badly.

(News: Alosno, Huelva, Andalucia)