Firefighters in Alabama came to the rescue of a teen stuck in a Barney costume head. That would be the giant purple dinosaur, in case you've forgotten your roots. Somehow that's not the most random rescue firefighters have done—that honor goes to the man who got himself stuck inside a vagina sculpture in Germany.
Darby Risner, 15, was only trying to prank her friends Sunday night when she ended up getting rescued by the Trussville Fire Department, Al.com reported. Risner was with her friends at a party after church when she saw the Barney head, sans body costume, and decided to put it on before her friends showed up downstairs. According to Audrey Shannon, Risner's mother, Darby wanted to scare her friends. (But really who was going to be scared of the beloved creature that taught you "sharing is caring" among other things?)
"She put the Barney head on and when she sat down on the sofa to wait for them, it dropped," Shannon toldAl.com. "It slipped over her shoulders. When they finally came down, she got up and realized it had dropped so low, she couldn't get it off. It was digging into her."
Despite friends and others trying to get Risner out of the head, even using vaseline to slide her out, she remained stuck for 45 minutes. Risner toldAl.com, "It was like a stuck-in-a-small-place-and-can't-get-out-panicking."
Meanwhile Risner's situation was making those around her laugh, and mother said "[the head] gave her short little Barney arms since it was nearly at her elbows.'' Shannon thought it was "hilarious."
When Risner started getting hot and feeling nauseated, that's when friends and family opted for professional help. Risner's family didn't want to cause a stir—or perhaps further embarrassment—with firefighters coming to Risner sirens blazing, so they went down to the Trussville Fire Department.
"When they walked in, you couldn't help but start laughing,'' said Trussville Fire Lt. Vince Bruno. "We tried to be professional, and she was a little distraught, but we had to giggle about it."
After failing to pry the head off, the 33-year-old fire department vet and his team cut into the head freeing Risner.
"She's so little that when they lifted the head, it lifted her off the ground so they had to hold down her feet,'' Shannon said. "And with the Vaseline on her arms, they said it was like trying to wrestle a greased pig.”
Risner seems to be doing fine now and is on her way to internet fame.
