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Man Rescued After Being Stuck Between 2 Oakland Buildings For Hours

OAKLAND (KDKA) -- Pittsburgh Police, Fire, EMS and Public Works crews worked to free a man who was trapped between two buildings Tuesday morning in Oakland.

It all started around 2 a.m. on Forbes Avenue.

According to police, a Pitt student became wedged between two buildings, in a gap that ranged from 16-18 inches wide, when he tried leap from one to the other. He attempted to go from the shorter building to the taller one, but missed. After falling, he became suspended about five-feet off the ground.

He was allegedly out to impress a girl he met Monday night, but failed miserably.

The girl he was trying to impress, who waited with everyone else along Forbes Avenue during the rescue, saw he was in trouble and called campus police, who called 911.

It was a four-hour ordeal for paramedics, Pittsburgh and Pitt Police and Public Works.

He has been identified by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as Grant Birdsong, 22, of Indiana Township. A spokesperson with UPMC said Tuesday afternoon that he is in fair condition.

Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich says the man fell three stories.

oaklandmantrapped
Photo Credit: Brenda Waters/KDKA

Crews removed bricks and went through the wall at the Qdoba restaurant.

"It appears there were three walls that we had to go through and also we had people on the roof, one of the paramedics did rappel down the three stories to render assistance and to get a landmark as to where he was," Hissrich said.

Birdsong and the medic were brought out through a gaping hole inside Qdoba.

Eventually, Birdsong was brought out on a stretcher with a broken ankle, which he underwent surgery later to repair. He gave two thumbs up to the girl he wanted to impress as he was loaded into the ambulance.

"He was alert and talking," said Hissrich. "Obviously, he was here for three and a half to four hours, so he was numb."

The manager of Qdoba says this couldn't have come at a worse time with students just returning to Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University.

"I thought it was going to be a hole to patch, but we're going to have to remove the entire interior wall," said Chad Brooks, of fixing the wall in his restaurant.

Throughout the day, plenty of people were coming by to see the hole, snap a picture and offer commentary on the bizarre incident.

"I think he is an idiot for doing it, but at least he got the girl," Anthony Demaio said.

Fellow student Kamila Rak had similar thoughts.

"If he was doing it to impress a girl, I personally would not be impressed at all. He really made a fool of himself, but she stayed," Rak said.

Next door, Bruegger's Bagels put a sign in their window this morning apologizing for being closed until 7 a.m.

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(Photo Credit: Dan Vojtko/KDKA)

There is no word on whether Birdsong will face charges.

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