NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla.
-- A Pasco County man who became trapped in his mobile home when the floor
gave way under him was rescued by emergency workers.
The manager of the mobile home park found the man, who reportedly
weighed 400 pounds, on Wednesday.
"There he was in that little bedroom sitting in a little hole," said
Gene Morton, of Orangewood Lakes Mobile Home Community.
Morton identified the man as George Daniels, 61, and said he found
Daniels conscious but disoriented, sitting with his head bowed. Morton said
Daniels told him he had been stuck for two days, though emergency responders
weren't so sure.
"They would ask him one time and he'd say a day," said James Higgins, a
Pasco County Fire Rescue battalion chief. "They'd ask him another time and
he'd say he had been there for an hour."
It took about eight rescue workers to get Daniels out of the home in a
stretcher, Morton said. "He's one big man," he said. The floor boards in
Daniels' home may have rotted underneath the carpet, Morton said.
Morton called 911 after getting a call from one of the man's neighbors,
who had known Daniels was stuck for some time but waited to call for help, he
said.
One neighbor, 80-year-old Warren Conklin, said he checked on Daniels
earlier Wednesday.
"I didn't know he was stuck in there," the neighbor said. "It looked
like he was just sitting there."
Conklin said he asked Daniels if he wanted him to call someone.
"He said, 'No, no, I'll get up myself,"' Conklin said.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
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