boy gets stuck in arcade machine

[faceless]

The boy who got fed up trying to pick up a teddy bear in the arcade machine ...
By Chris Brooke
08th June 2008

They say the fun's in the taking part. But someone forgot to explain that to Christopher Air. And when his mother Elaine took the three-year-old to the games arcade on the family's holiday in Skegness, he just wanted to get his hands on the winnings. For a while, he had been playing happily on the crane machine, trying to pick up a teddy bear with its mechanical arm. But he wasn't having any success.

And as Mrs Air went to change a £20 note so he could try again, Christopher took matters into his own hands. Rather like a scene in the film Toy Story, he spotted the flap on the machine, from where the prizes are delivered, and squeezed inside. Mrs Air said: 'My back was only turned for a minute. When I looked around, Christopher was inside. He's good at solving problems. He obviously saw getting the teddy bear as a problem and getting inside the machine as the answer.' For Christopher, at last united with the bear, it was the perfect solution... in the short term at least.

But it proved more difficult to get out, than in - especially as the arcade owner couldn't locate the keys. Mrs Air, 33, of Grangetown, Sunderland, added: 'Initially, Christopher was laughing. But then a crowd started to gather and he got upset and started crying.' After 30 minutes, he was released - and is sure to have learned his lesson. But, misguided as it was, his ingenuity paid off - the arcade owner gave him the bear to cheer him up.

The toddler is now back at home with Winnie. Mrs Air added: 'If you mention what happened, he just laughs and he puts a little guilty look on his face. You can see he’s a bit embarrassed about it but he’s none the worse for what happened.'

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