Bewildered rescue workers spend half an hour struggling to pull shirtless man from Philadelphia manhole

Published: 03:44, 22 July 2026 | Updated: 03:44, 22 July 2026 An astonishing video showed the moment a shirtless man was pulled out of a manhole in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after a more than half-hour rescue operation. The 7th Police District Advisory Council said that on Wednesday afternoon, the man was extracted from a manhole on the 8500 block of Bustleton Avenue in the city's Bell's Corner neighborhood. The rescue took more than 30 minutes because the fire department could not open the covering and had to wait for the water department to arrive to help. Video showed the manhole being opened with a pitchfork as several first responders surrounded the opening. Finally, the man slowly crawled out covered in dirt while wearing no shoes. According to officials, the man became lost in the sewers after entering the system several blocks away. Officials said the man thought he was being chased by police. However, he was not. It's unclear at the time of this report how exactly he entered the sewers. A shirtless man was pulled from a manhole in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after a more than half-hour rescue operation Officials said the man was extracted from a manhole on the 8500 block of Bustleton Avenue in the city's Bell's Corner neighborhood Footage of the incident has gone viral, with one Facebook post garnering 305,000 views and hundreds of comments. Users online shared jokes about the incident, sarcastically speculating that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may have had some connection to the incident. The fictional group of sewer-dwelling vigilantes famously lived underground and took orders from a giant rat.  One user wrote: 'He thought Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo were having a pizza party at their underground crib.' 'Disappointed he wasn’t dressed as a ninja turtle when he came out,' another added. 'Must've had a Pizza Delivery for these guys,' wrote a third user who added a photo of the iconic turtles. Recently, a Missouri man was rescued from a similar circumstance after becoming trapped in a porta-potty waste tank, forcing disgusted firefighters to cut him free. The Kansas City Fire Department was called to the scene in central Kansas City at around 11.20am on Tuesday, according to an alert from the Citizen app. Backup, including an ambulance, was summoned when the severity of the situation became clear. The rescue took more than 30 minutes because the fire department could not open the covering and had to wait for the water department to arrive to help Officials said the man became lost in the sewers after entering the system several blocks away A video of the rescue, which was recorded by a man named Eddie Bejarano, has garnered millions of views on social media. Bejarano made a follow-up video explaining that he had gone to pick up eight porta-potty units when he saw that one of them was being used.