SARASOTA SPRINGS, N.Y., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A telemarketer called to offer an Illinois man a mortgage and wound up tossing him a lifeline instead.

Crystal Rozelle, a Consumer Direct Marketing loan assistant in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., called Stanley Bauch, of Ridott, Ill., an 85-year-old cancer patient, in what turned out to be anything but routine.

Authorities said Bauch fell while carrying groceries outside his home and could not get up. He managed to crawl inside but could not get his phone to call out.

Rozelle somehow managed to get her call in -- 17 hours after the fall -- and a weakened Bauch told her his condition. Saratoga Springs police were able to contact police in Ridott.

Sheriff's Sgt. Shan MacAdam told the Glens Falls Post-Star said that the phones in Bauch's home appeared dead and it was a mystery how anyone could have called in.

"That's fate man," he said. "That is fate."