Heroic trio to the rescue
Published: August 28, 2006
Stefan Timmermans, Dennis Cawte and Dave Judd aren’t usually in the business of saving people.
But all three finished their usual working day as heroes after helping an elderly man stuck in mudflats at Te Atatu.
The men were working on a building site when they saw the man on Monday afternoon.
Mr Cawte, who was on scaffolding, spotted him first.
“He looked as if he was gathering shellfish,” he says.
The trio then saw the man on all fours - obviously stuck.
Mr Cawte says it is unlikely the man would have been seen from the road.
They decided to help when they realised the tide was coming in and battled their out through the mud.
They say the man was lying flat on his belly and looked as if he had given up when they reached him.
“He couldn’t move,” Mr Timmermans says. “He was quite exhausted.”
Two of them picked the man up and just managed to make it back to safe ground.
“We were sinking in to the mud ourselves,” Mr Timmermans says.
The grateful and embarrassed man returned to his Massey home shaken but unhurt.
He does not want to comment.
But his three rescuers say the incident should be a warning to others.
They say people should avoid walking on the mudflats.
“We often see people out there,” Mr Timmermans says.
“It’s dangerous.”
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