GLADSTONE, MI-- A DNR conservation officer is being credited with saving a runaway 10-year-old boy from Lake Michigan ice in Delta County.
The special needs boy had run away from his family at the Log Cabin Grill and Bar near Gladstone Sunday afternoon. Officials say he crossed four busy lanes of traffic on US-2 and his mother last saw him heading east across the ice.
DNR Officer Patrick Hartsig responded to Delta County Dispatch and launched his snowmobile near Hunter’s Point on Little Bay de Noc. He found the boy in his stocking feet on the ice about a mile from shore. Temperatures were in the teens and the boy was only wearing jeans, a shirt, and a jacket.
“He was crying, he was scared,” Hartsig said. “I asked him where he was going and he said he didn’t know. He said his feet hurt.”
A first aid instructor and former paramedic, Hartsig took off the boy’s socks and warmed his feet. He then put his own boots, gloves, and helmet on the child and transported him to the Michigan State Police Post in Gladstone. The boy’s mother, a Delta County Sheriff’s deputy, and an ambulance met them there.
“Pat’s quick response, while having the right tools, training, and local knowledge of his work area, turned a bad situation around before it could get worse,” said Sgt. Jerrold Fitzgibbon, who oversees conservation officers, including Hartsig, in Alger, Delta and Schoolcraft counties. “This could easily have ended poorly for the boy had Pat not been there and located him as quickly as he did.”
Hartsig was hired by the DNR two years ago and has been patrolling Delta County ever since.
