Michigan Teen Catches A Baby Falling From A Third-Story Window


A teen from Jackson, Michigan saved a one-year-old baby that was falling from a third-story window and astonished even himself. The 18-year-old teen had never even held a baby before the amazing mid-air catch. The little boy was falling from a window at an apartment complex, when the teen with outstanding intuition and reflexes saved his life.

Austin Konopacki was called a hero by media reports, friends, family, and Twitter users, but Austin told WILX, “I don’t really care about being a hero, I’m just happy he is safe.”

Austin said that he first saw the one-year old baby boy playing in a third-story window. Austin was at the apartment complex working on a manhole. While in the parking lot, Austin saw the baby trying to interact with the workers outside. “The little boy was just pushing on the screen about the entire time and he was talking to us and playing like Marco Polo and he was real cute and just smiling at us,” Konopacki said. The teen admitted that he was nervous about the the baby playing so close to the window.

When Austin finished up his work at the apartment complex, he had a nagging feeling about the baby in the window. Austin decided to wait around after his co-worker had left. Konopacki stayed in the parking lot where a few minutes later, he heard the window’s screen start to crack. His intuition had been right, “The screen just fell out and was dangling there and the baby was just dangling over the window sill,” Konopacki recalled. “The fear in his eyes, I just felt so bad.” Beneath the window was a pile of cement blocks. Acting fast, the teen positioned himself under the baby who was hanging from the window. MLive reported that the teen was about 20 yards away when he first heard the window’s screen start to give out.

The baby was injured when he hit his head on the wall while falling down from the window, but police said that had Austin not been there to save the baby, the baby may not have survived the three-story fall. Police have also called the Michigan teen a hero. “He would have had some serious injuries, potentially fatal injuries if he [Konopacki] wouldn’t have been there to catch him,” Lt. Elmer Hitt of the Jackson Police Department told WILX.

“It’s kind of amazing, I mean he didn’t knock me over or anything,” Konopacki said, still amazed that he managed to catch the baby mid-air. “The look in his eyes was so sad, and then he fell, and I leaned over and caught him, but just barely,” Konopacki said. “It was scary. It still hasn’t really hit me yet. I’m just happy he is OK, that is all I really care about.”

The baby’s parents were obviously very thankful that the teen was there to catch him. “He was so grateful, and the mom was grateful too, but she was just in so much shock,” Konopacki told MLIVE. “I’m just so happy he is alive.” The teen graduated just weeks ago from Lumen Christi High School. The boy’s father told the teen that the baby is doing well aside from a large bump on his head where he hit the house during the fall from the window.

Another mid-air catch that involved quick reflexes like that of the teen who rescued the boy falling from a window, involves a baseball fan catching a ball one-handed while holding a baby.

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