A 9-year-old Tipton boy was trapped for nearly an hour in a stone hopper at a concrete-mixing facility before rescuers pulled him out alive and alert Monday afternoon, police said.
Justin Harshman was playing with two friends on the Irving Materials Inc. property in Tipton when he either fell or climbed into the top of the hopper and became nearly covered by stones at about noon, state police said.
The top of the hopper, which is several feet tall, is accessible by taking a path up a hill.
One of the friends alerted the plant's manager, Butch May, who said stones had covered all of Justin except for a hand. The hopper's conveyor system had sucked the boy downward, police said.
"I could hear him -- he was mumbling," May told 6 News' Rafael Sanchez. "I told him not to talk, but keep the stones and stuff out of his mouth. I tried to rake the stuff away from his face so he could breathe."
Firefighters and police were called. Rescuers at first dug by hand and with buckets to remove the stone, and then they used a sewer vacuum to suck the stones away, state police said.
Shortly before 1 p.m., the rescuers pulled Justin out of the hopper.
A helicopter took the boy to Indianapolis' Methodist Hospital with what firefighters thought was a leg injury, according to police. He was released from the hospital later Monday, state police said.
State police said Justin and his friends, ages 12 and 10, were on spring break. Police said they didn't know how the boys had entered the property.
