Boy falls 15 ft. into alley opening

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - A local family is shaken after their Halloween weekend turned into a real-life nightmare.

It was dark Friday night when the March family walked through a Fort Wayne alley between Wayne and Berry streets on the way to a costume party hosted by a downtown restaurant. During the walk, a four year old boy fell 15 feet down a hole near dumpsters into a basement storage area behind Toscani Pizzeria.

"One minute we're walking and everybody is having a fun time," Dave March said. "Then he just falls basically into the earth."

Family members say nothing blocked or called attention to the hole.

Emergency crews unlocked an access door to the basement and safely rescued the boy. Luckily, the family said he walked away from a situation that could have been much worse.

Plywood boards now cover the once open hole.

NewsChannel 15 spoke with the owner of Toscani Pizzera. Mike Harris said the hole was once covered by welded metal sheets.

"The problem was, when [the garbage trucks] come in they turn the [dumpsters] out and they keep ripping the top off," Harris said.

The restaurant owner said he and the building owner take responsibility for what happened. The plywood boards are just a temporary fix while they work to find a permanent solution.