Dec. 31--The 911 caller was sure of just one thing: He was trapped in a sewer tunnel in the dark.
He might have a broken leg and he was somewhere between 143rd and 151st streets along Harlem Avenue in Orland Park.
"So nobody can see you waving your hands in the street, right?" the dispatcher asked.
"Oh, there's no way you could see me wave my hands because I'm about 12 feet below," answered the man, who gave his name as Steve.
Over the next 15 minutes last Saturday evening, police drove slowly down Harlem Avenue until the man heard their sirens and directed them to where he was, according to a recording of the 911 call.
"I see lights flashing above," he told the dispatcher.
"He sees lights above," the dispatcher relayed to police at the scene. She then told the man to keep hollering until the officers arrived.
"I hear them coming closer," the man said. Then he had a question for the dispatcher: "The fact that I can move my leg, is that a good sign that it's not broken?"
"Are you in pain?" the dispatcher asked. "But try not to move it, though."
"Yeah, I'm in a little pain but I think it's more shock now," the man said.
"Well, don't try to move it any more. Try to stand still, OK?" the dispatcher said.
"OK, OK, OK," the man said.
"They're almost there," she said.
It took about an hour for rescuers to rig a pulley and get him out. He was in "obvious pain" and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, fire officials said.
The man told police he was walking back to his car when he fell into the open sewer tunnel. Officials said the cover had been taken off.
Orland Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Bill Bonnar said the man was lucky he had his cell phone. "I'm not sure he would've made it if he hadn't been able to make that phone call."
