SAN ANTONIO — Castle Hills Police say a homeless man trapped himself in a drainage ditch for 17 hours after he got lost crawling through the tunnels. An officer eventually rescued the man, but authorities say homeless people living in tunnels near the Loop 410 and West Avenue area is becoming more prevalent.
For Officer Nathaniel Peck, sometimes policing takes him under the streets and into those tunnels.
"You have a lot of debris," he said. "One of the things we do worry about is when they have campfires in here."
Peck said a common spot for the homeless population to live is under a bridge off Loop 410 near West Avenue.
"We have a lot of drug use that happens a lot down here," he said.
Earlier this week, he said, is when a man jumped through a hole into a tunnel, in an attempt to stay warm. Peck said the homeless man kept climbing and crawling.
"He was on his hands and knees crawling for hundreds of yards," he said.
Peck said it was after midnight, and the man's flashlight ran out of battery. He said the man crawled for nearly a half-mile and ended up at a drainage tunnel off the Loop 410 frontage road.
He was trapped until after daybreak, when Officer was driving by.
"That is the first time I was scanning and saw human hands sticking out of a drainage ditch grate," he said.
He said he did a double-take and pulled over. Peck yelled at the man who responded. However, the grate was bolted. It took several firefighters and officers to lift the grate that weighs thousands of pounds.
"The fact you were in the dark and wet for 17 hours is enough to make anyone's skin crawl," the officer said.
The man was rescued and was OK, despite being dehydrated. He was thankful to survive and to Peck's watchful eye.
"I am glad we were able to save him there," Peck said.
Peck said officers try and patrol different areas. He said they try to link the homeless people with different agencies in the community that can help them.