by Christopher Sanchez
Daily Lobo
A man was arrested Thursday after he jumped into a vent above Ho Ho Chinese Food and was stuck for about two hours.
Albuquerque Police officers could not identify the man and did not know if he was injured from being lodged in a vent above the ovens in the restaurant's kitchen.
Mario Peralta, an employee of the UPS Store next to the restaurant, said he was working and heard someone running on the roof. Peralta said he ran outside and saw the man breaking the wood balcony above the UPS store. The man tried opening the balcony door, Peralta said.
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"He wanted to know what was in there," Peralta said. "I told him it was locked because nothing was in there."
The man then told Peralta the building was architecturally unsafe and started to break pieces of the balcony.
The police officers were assisting a car accident when they saw the man on top of the Lobo Campus Center on the corner of Central Avenue and Yale Boulevard.
When police and firefighters arrived on the scene, the man pulled a camera out and started taking pictures, Peralta said. He then ran across the roof and jumped into a vent above the Chinese food restaurant, Peralta said.
Henry Lee, manager of Ho Ho Chinese Food, said he was cooking food and heard a loud bang followed by shouting above his oven.
"It's super hot in there (the vent), at least 120 degrees," Lee said. "I turned off everything. He would have died in there. That's crazy. I don't know why he went in there."
Police officers closed the center, and people formed a crowd to wait for the outcome.
UNM alumnus Walt Gill sat on the curb and ate his Chinese food while rescue teams tried to free the man. Gill said he was eating in the restaurant and heard someone banging and yelling for help.
"It's more funny than anything," Gill said.
Peralta said it is easy to climb up to the center's roof.
"There are some electrical boxes you can climb up if you wanted to - if you dared to," he said.
Once the man was freed from the vent, he was medically treated and will be sent to jail, said Lt. Lee Krebsbach, an Albuquerque Police officer.
Krebsbach said it is not unusual for someone to get stuck in a vent, but it usually happens at night during a burglary.
"Here we got some guy who went crazy and got stuck in a vent," he said.
Krebsbach said the man climbed out of the vent by himself and was disoriented.
More than likely the man will be charged with breaking and entering and criminal damage, Krebsbach said. The man damaged the roof and a parked car, he said.
Peralta said the situation did not surprise him.
"It's just another day here," he said.
