A man believed to be under the influence of drugs caused chaos at a California hospital after crawling into the emergency room ceiling and getting stuck, according to authorities.
The man, a walk-in patient, entered San Antonio Regional Hospital night around 9 p.m. local time and was last seen on surveillance footage entering a restroom, Upland police said. Officers arrived to find that he had broken through ceiling tiles and was somewhere above the ER.
Last night around 9 PM, we received a call from the San Antonio Regional Hospital regarding a subject who broke through some ceiling tiles in one of their emergency room restrooms and was now somewhere inside their ceiling. Okay Monday, we accept.
— Upland Police Department (@UplandPD) November 20, 2024
We learned the subject was a... pic.twitter.com/gCmyVX0qUW
Using a pole camera, police located the man wedged under a steel beam on top of an HVAC unit in complete darkness. The man eventually responded to officers, admitting he was stuck and unable to free himself.
Firefighters from the San Bernardino County Fire Department spent nearly an hour extricating the man from the confined space filled with wires, plumbing, and HVAC lines, according to a report from KTLA News Channel 2.
The incident caused over $5,000 in damage to the hospital's ceiling, electrical wiring, and HVAC system. Despite the disruption, hospital staff maintained uninterrupted emergency room services.
The unidentified man was arrested for felony vandalism and taken to jail.
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