Crews rescue man impaled on fence in Fort Lauderdale

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – A man who was trying to scale the wrought-iron fenced parking lot around the Fort Lauderdale Police Department was impaled by a 14-inch spike on top of an electronic rolling gate.

Deputy Fire Chief Timothy Heiser says the man’s legs were on one side of the gate and his body on the other when nearby rescue crews found him after hearing his screams Sunday night.

Heiser told the South Florida Sun Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1Blv6Co ) that a quick-thinking police officer put his handcuffs around the automated entrance gate so it wouldn’t open. Heiser says that “very likely saved the guy’s life.”

Crews had to cut the man free and they took him to the hospital with the fence still around him. He was still in the hospital on Tuesday night.