Manager saves baby from fall as rifle distracts Utah pawn shop customers, video shows
A Utah pawn shop manager’s quick thinking over the weekend saved a baby from serious injury — or worse.
The manager was working at Family Pawn in Hurricane on Saturday when he noticed the infant teetering off the ledge of the shop’s glass countertop, surveillance video posted by the pawn shop shows.
That’s when the manager leaped into action, rushing to the counter and swooping in just in time to grab the small child mid-fall.
Then the manager handed the baby back to the two women, who had been distracted by a rifle on the counter as they spoke with a store clerk, video shows.
Family Pawn wrote in the post sharing the clip that the manager “was in the right spot at the right time and saved this baby from having a terrible accident today.”
Hurricane, where the shop is located, is near Utah’s Arizona and Nevada borders.
“I reacted, probably within an 8th of a second,” manager Bill Reel told FOX 13, adding that the floor was made of concrete. “I saw the baby bob just enough to show me that it could barely hold itself up and I just ran toward it.”
The baby wasn’t hurt, ABC4 reports.
But the whole situation did give Reel a scare.
“I was scared to death, and I grabbed the baby. My heart was racing,” Reel told ABC4. “I held the baby for a couple of seconds, and then I gave it back to I believe grandma. There’s no doubt that baby was gonna get hurt, and I think there was even a risk of, you know, some brain injury.”
The women involved in the incident “are considering the outcome fortunate and thank Reel for his quick thinking,” according to KUTV.
The customers bought the gun they were admiring, FOX 13 reported.
“We’re a family-friendly pawn shop, a little different than most pawn shops, so we see a lot of kids come in through here,” Reel told KUTV.
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 2:25 PM with the headline "Manager saves baby from fall as rifle distracts Utah pawn shop customers, video shows."
