NEWBURGH, N.Y., Nov. 28 (UPI) -- On Thursday two young boys were playing in the snow, as kids from New York so often do on their days off from school, but their innocent Thanksgiving Day play turned into a nightmare when a snowplow pushed several extra feet of snow on top of the fort they'd built into the side of a snowbank. The boys, ages 9 and 12, were trapped.
The snowplow operator had no idea anything had happened. He never saw the two boys or their fort on the opposite side of the pile of snow. The boys' parents were also unaware of their predicament. But when the two didn't return home later that afternoon, their relatives called authorities.
Police canvassed the apartment complex in Newburgh, New York, knocking on doors and interviewing neighbors. Eventually, having learned the boys had been building a snow fort, officers located a shovel half-buried in the bank and began digging.
Police described the rescue scene as frantic. EMS rescuers showed up, and neighbors helped dig.
"They were probably in about five feet of snow," Sgt. Aaron Weaver told local CNN affiliate WCBS. "But how ever it fell, there was, like, a dome around their heads, so there was air in there, like space for them." "It was all just really adrenaline," Weaver said. "I wasn't thinking much. Just trying to get to the kids."
The boys were finally freed from the snowbank at 2 a.m. They were found conscious, but were taken immediately to the hospital where they were treated for exposure.
"Today I am thankful my son and nephew are here and I would like to thank the Newburgh Police Officers who found my nephew and my son after searching for them," one boy's mother told NBC New York. "They found them at 2 am stuck in a huge snowpile that trapped them for several hours so I am very thankful today to have these two safe at home alive."
