Recently, Andrea Kim and her husband Andrew spotted a duck wandering around their neighborhood. At first, they didn’t think much of it, but when they noticed the duck hanging around on top of a storm drain, they realized something was wrong.
As the couple
approached the storm drain, they started hearing little squeaking noises. They peered down into the drain and spotted a pile of ducklings stuck at the bottom.
“It was pouring rain,” Andrew said in a video for The Dodo. “You’ve gotta be careful because sewers can fill up with water.”
Andrea and Andrew knew they wanted to help rescue the little ones and reunite them with their mama. They called the fire department, waited around for them to show up, then realized they weren’t going to come in time.
“We were fighting against time,” Andrew said.
At that point, Andrew and Andrea decided to take matters into their own hands.
“We started Googling, ‘Is it possible to just lift the sewer drain lid?’’ Andrea said in a video for The Dodo.
After they found a video on YouTube of someone lifting the cover off a sewer drain, they decided to try it. Sure enough, Andrew was able to use all of his strength to pull the cover off the drain by himself.
The couple then worked together to scoop all of the babies into a laundry basket. As they worked, the mama stayed close by, anxiously watching everything they were doing.
“The mother duck was waiting right next to the grass area,” Andrew said.
As soon as all the babies were in the basket, Andrew and Andrea lifted them out of the drain and gently tipped them out. The ducklings didn’t hesitate to waddle over to their mom, who was waiting nearby.
“It was just beautiful to see the baby ducks running towards the mom,” Andrew said.
Just 45 minutes after the couple first spotted the stranded ducklings, the little family was back together. Andrea and Andrew were overjoyed that they got to reunite a worried mama with her babies.
“I felt how happy and relieved that mother duck was,” Andrea said. “It was just such a special moment.”
