Firefighters rescue woman found stuck in air vent of vacant home in northeast Houston
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A woman told Houston firefighter she couldn't remember how she got on a rooftop of a vacant home overnight, before becoming stuck when she forced herself into a vent hood.
Houston fire crews got an unusual call Friday morning after finding a woman who was stuck in an air vent of a home.
Firefighters arrived to the scene just before 4:30 a.m. at the 2300 block of Parker Road and Aldine Westfield Road after a man called 911 about screaming noises he heard from the house.
The man said he was walking to a nearby store for a beer when he heard someone yelling.
"It was like the house was vibrating," said Arthur Reyes. "It was shaking and she was yelling for help. I asked her if she was stealing something and then I called 911."
Eyewitness News reporter Jeff Ehling spoke to that man.
"What are you doing up there?" Reyes said to the woman in the vent.
He asked her if she was trying to break into the home, but he said that she responded by asking him to get her a bottle of water.
Reyes said he rode his bike to a nearby gas station to tell the clerk and called 911.
"There's someone in that place up there, stuck, man. We gotta get her out," Reyes said.
Reyes directed the firefighters to the home and told them where he heard the screaming.
It took a heavy duty rescue crew from the Houston Fire Department to extract the 30-year-old woman, who was lodged in the vent. An attempt to pull her back through the roof failed, so she was pulled down into the house.
The woman was identified as Dixie by Sabrina Watson. "She's my niece-in-law," she said.
WATCH: Raw video shows firefighters on the roof working to cut woman out from air vent
Watson described Dixie as troubled. She said she had moved to Georgia, but the person she was living with put her on a one-way bus to Houston two days ago.
"I didn't even know she was back in town," Watson said. "I kicked her out of my houses three times before," she said.
Dixie had nothing to say as she was loaded into an ambulance. She was taken to a hospital with injuries to her foot and leg from being wedged into the metal hood.
The owner of the house on Parker Road wants to press breaking and entering as well as vandalism charges against the woman. The one-bedroom, one-bath house, is listed for sale, with a price of $170,000.
Police are also testing white powder found in a bag allegedly in the intruder's possession.
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