Woman Stranded In Backyard Pool Finds Help On Facebook
EPPING, NH (CBS) - A backyard pool mishap stranded an Epping, NH woman in four feet of water, but also revealed the positive power of social media.
When Leslie Kahn went for a dip, she didn't expect her pool ladder to break. But what happened next will renew your faith in people.
"I swim as often as possible every summer," Leslie says.
She had just finished her daily swim on a day a lot nicer than today, but as she started to get out, a step on the pool ladder broke.
"I had one foot on it, and when I put my other foot on it, it went down. And I cracked my knee," she says
Still, she tried to climb out, but just couldn't manage it.
"Because I don't have the agility or the upper body strength that I used to," she said.
Now what? "I was thinking I might be here a while because my tenants were out, nobody was home. My phone was inside," she says.
But her old iPad was on a chair on the small pool deck, but it was out of reach. Then, ingenuity. "So then I grab the pole. Hooked the leg of the chair. Dragged it over, and got online," she says.
She posted her 911 on "Epping Squawks," a community Facebook group. "Only a few minutes to start getting a response," Leslie says.
Offers of help poured in, and people came to Leslie's house. They tried to fix the ladder, no dice. They tried putting a chair in the water, but it was too tippy.
"Every idea we thought of didn't work," she says. Finally they tried a step ladder. "And I just climbed out. Happily ever after at that point," she says.
And a big thank you to the good people of Epping. "People keep saying, 'I bet you can laugh about it now.' I was laughing about it then. What else can you do!" she says.
