'He's a hero': Dog rescued by maintenance man in close elevator call
A south Edmonton dog is OK thanks to her favourite maintenance worker noticing she had been stranded on the outside of an elevator going up.
The rescue, captured on the building's security footage, is nail biting.
"I don’t know if I want to watch it," Charley's owner Angela Welz told CTV News Edmonton.
On Tuesday, she and Charley were returning to their apartment from one of their outings when the pair spotted the building's maintenance worker, Bob Foster. Welz waves and continues into the elevator while Charley lingers in the lobby.
"I thought she was in the elevator with me, but she pulled out and saw the maintenance man and the elevator started to close," Welz recalled.
Foster walks out as the door starts to close. Upon realizing it has fully shut, he hits a button on the elevator's command pad, but its starts to rise anyway -- pulling Charley by her leash with it.
"I could feel the leash tugging on the door, and the door wouldn’t stop closing. I was pressing the buttons frantically, trying to stop it. I was just panicking," Welz said.
"I could see the leash moving up and I screamed at that point. I didn’t know what to do, so I was pressing buttons and all I was worried about was what I could going to find when the door opened on the other side."
Lucky for her and Charley both, Foster was on the other side. He first seems to try to find a way to unhook Charley from the leash, but with the speed the elevator begins to move, abandons the tactic and holds on.
He's lifted off his feet briefly before the leash appears to break. He keeps hold of Charley as the fall to the ground, with him bearing the brunt of the fall.
Angela Welz, Charley, Bob Foster pose for a photo. Foster saved Charley's life on Oct. 26, 2021, when she got stuck on the outside of an elevator going up. Foster held on to Charley and her leash until it snapped.
“She seems to be a little bit scared, but I think that’s normal," Welz said of Charley the next day.
"It could have been so much worse."
Charley was Welz' daughter's dog, before she passed away in 2016 from fentanyl poisoning.
“Our family is very happy that she’s OK and thanks to Bob and his service and -- he’s a hero," Welz said.
"I'm very, very indebted to him."
While the maintenance worker declined to interview, he has been told how much his heroism is appreciated.
He was gifted a mug that reads, "You're my hero. Love, Charley."
Angela Welz and Charley gave Bob Foster a mug for his heroic and quick thinking. It reads: "You're my hero. Love, Charley."
With files from CTV Edmonton’s Dave Ewasuk
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Trudeau promises $1B in loans for child-care providers to expand care centres
The federal government is launching a new loan program to help child-care providers in Canada expand their spaces, and will be extending further student loan forgiveness and training options for early childhood educators, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.
Spring allergy season has begun. Where is it worse in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
'Nonsense:' Doug Ford slams lawsuits filed by Ontario school boards against social media platforms
Premier Doug Ford says that lawsuits launched by four Ontario school boards against a trio of social media platforms are “nonsense” and risk becoming a distraction to the work that really matters.
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
N.B. man wins $64 million from Lotto 6/49
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
Multiple bridges in Calgary shut down for police incident
Calgary police have shut down a number of bridges into and out of the downtown core as officers deal with a distraught individual.
King Charles calls for acts of friendship in first public remarks since Kate's cancer diagnosis
King Charles III gave public remarks for Maundy Thursday, addressing the importance of acts of friendship, following his and Catherine, Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnoses.
Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unravelled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency.
A dog and a bird formed an unlikely friendship. Their separation has infuriated followers
Peggy is a stout and muscular Staffordshire bull terrier, and Molly is a magpie, an Australian bird best known for swooping on humans during breeding season, not for befriending dogs. But in an emotional video posted online, Peggy’s owners announced that the animals had been separated.