An off-duty cop calmly came to the rescue of a frantic young girl trapped inside a claw machine at a Missouri bowling alley.
Ryan Brown, an 11-year veteran with the St. Charles County Police Department, was at the Lucky Strike bowling alley with his family in St. Peters last week when he spotted an impish child stuck inside a claw machine.
“Armed with courage, nerves of steel & approximately $4, [Officer] Brown sprang into action,” the police department detailed in a dramatic re-telling on Facebook.
Brown played a few rounds on the machine as he coaxed the girl out of the prize slot.
When Brown was certain the toddler wasn’t injured during her short-lived detour, he tracked down her family and reunited them, the department said.
Then, he pivoted back to the bowling alley, where his own family was waiting for him — and ended the evening with a sub-par score of 96.
“Just another reminder that the Officers of the St. Charles County Police Department are always ready to serve the #SCC Community — on & off-duty,” the department boasted with pride.
Cops in the St. Louis area are well-versed in grabber-game entrapment.
In February, two kids wedged themselves inside a game at the Soccer Dome in Webster Grove just days apart.
Cooper King, 2, the first slippery bandit, climbed up the prize chute and inside the skill game, which was filled with spiky rubber balls.
Cooper screamed in apparent glee, attracting a swarm of bystanders, though he was completely unfazed and gladly soaked up the extra attention.
“You know he’s laughing, throwing balls everywhere. We were like Cooper, try and go back down, and he was like shaking his head,” his mother recounted.
Less than a week later, Patrick Campbell, 3, made himself at home inside the same machine.
“I get ball!” Patrick told WWNY.
Patrick, too, was unbothered by his troublemaking, and even said “cheese” as people took pictures of him inside the machine.
