A guy dressed as Santa Claus made a wrong turn in his flying "sled" north of Sacramento on Sunday morning and ended up snagged in some power lines and in need of rescue.
The Santa in question is apparently a resident of Rio Linda, in the North Sacramento area, and the sight of him flying around over homes in the area in his powered parachute is not an unfamiliar, as KCRA reports. And this may not have been the first time he'd donned a Santa suit around the holidays. But things reportedly went awry pretty quickly this time around.
"A powered parachute lost power on takeoff near a school in Rio Linda, Calif., and then hit and became suspended in power lines around 11:00 a.m. local time [on Sunday]," said the FAA in a statement.
Santa was intending to toss out candy canes for kids from his airborne contraption, but he didn't quite get the chance. He was instead tangled in live wires, and was thankfully uninjured while he waited, suspended upside down for an hour, for a rescue. Power had to be shut off for about 200 customers in the area while the rescue took place.
Multiple neighbors gathered to watch the rescue take place, thanks to a fire truck and ladder.
"Unfortunately, he was unable to meet that goal [of tossing candy canes] on this day,” said Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District Capt. Chris Vestal, per the Chronicle. “We do commend him for doing that and can appreciate the timing to try and bring the spirit, especially this year."
Neighborhood resident Colleen Bousliman tells KCRA, "He flies just around [all the time] so people can see and flies around people's houses. This was the first time he was in his Santa suit. We didn't know this was going to happen."
We are happy to report #Santa is uninjured and will be ready for #Christmas next week, but perhaps with a new sleigh! pic.twitter.com/muYQex4zYU
— Metro Fire of Sacramento (@metrofirepio) December 20, 2020
"We typically don’t respond to a 'Rudolph lane-changed me' call, but when you get multiple calls... it’s best to go check it out," joked CHP North Sacramento, on Facebook. "Turns out Santa was trying to get some last minute fun in before the holiday and got into a hot wire situation."
Anyone have "Santa gets stuck in live power lines" on their 2020 Bingo card? Anyone?
Photo: CHP North Sacramento