A 10-year-old Queens boy had a sinking feeling that he had better dial 911.
Anthony Picciano was terrified when he found himself stuck in the mud Friday night after wandering into a Jamaica Bay marsh. The Howard Beach boy said it felt like he was in quicksand, according to the New York Daily News.
“I was walking on a path of sticks and then the sticks ended and I fell off into the mud,” the buzz-cut, freckled boy said. “When I tried to get out of the mud I just kept sinking deeper. I was afraid. I was scared.”
Suddenly, he found himself stuck in thick, brown oozing mud around 7 p.m.
The frightened boy screamed for help, but no one came, he recalled. Eventually, he gave up on shouting and reached into his pocket for his cell phone, he said.
The stretch of beach at Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach where 10-year-old Anthony Picciano got stuck in a patch of mud while trying to watch fishermen.
“I yelled and then called 911,” the still-shaken boy told the Daily News. “The mud was past my knees and going up my legs. I thought I was going to sink.”
Police arrived about 10 minutes later, and so did his dad.
“I felt relieved,” Anthony said. “I couldn’t get out by myself. I was happy they came.”
Anthony had been on his way home from boxing lessons when he stopped by the beach in Spring Lake Park to see what the fishermen were catching. That’s when he got into trouble.
Cops pulled the boy out of the muck and took him to Jamaica Hospital where he was treated for leg pain.
Doctors gave Anthony the all-clear and released him just after midnight. The boy, scared and tired, went home with his parents.
Anthony was still shaken a day later, as he relaxed with his father on their front porch.
The fourth-grader has a message to kids who are thinking of wandering off the main beach at Spring Lake Park: “Don’t go there.”
His father, Anthony Picciano Sr., 40, was terrified when he got a call from police saying they were on their way to get the boy out of the marsh.
He jumped in his car and raced a couple blocks from his house to where his son had gotten stuck.
“I was concerned,” said the relieved father, a look of worry on his face.
“If he didn’t have his cell phone, God knows what could’ve happened.”
The father and son will celebrate Memorial Day by going fishing Monday on Jamaica Bay.
“This time, we’re taking a boat,” the dad said.
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