Close call: flying debris nearly impales autistic man

NAPLES, Fla.- A North Naples mom says a piece of wood broke through her window and nearly went through her autistic son’s head.

Amazingly, no one was hurt inside the home. The family says it happened in just seconds.

“I was on the fence screaming,” said Sandy Kaiser.

She was in the room with her son when the piece of wood smashed the glass. “It made the loudest noise when it shattered my window.”

“I heard her screaming and I thought something happened to Grant,” said Kaiser’s mother Angela Arand.

Kaiser took WINK News inside her home where it all started.

She and her son were in the back bedroom, Grant who suffers from autism was in the bed. His head was laying near the window.

“It exploded and it’s all on the ledge,” said Kaiser of the moment the debris smashed through the window. Her son’s saving grace–a few blankets and pillows.

“It’s very scary; his life is in my hands, he can’t talk,” said Kaiser. “He can’t take care of himself and that came within inches of his head.”

She says a county worker chopping down trees outside is to blame. With the worker on the other side of the fence, Kaiser called out to him with debris in her hand saying “see the sizes of the pieces of wood?” With wood flying, she never got close to the machine, and instead called 911.

An officer who arrived on scene was able to get the machine operator to stop.

Angry and frightened, Kaiser says she just wanted an apology from the operator.

A project supervisor taped up the broken window.

Kaiser says the most important thing is that her son is okay. “My son is everything to me.”