Surf City Police, public works department rescue 14 ducklings from storm drain

Photo via SCPD
Surf City Police Officer Victor Rice responds to a
mother duck's cries for help to save her babies.

When the kids are in danger, mom knows she has to do whatever she can to get help. Last week, a frantic mother duck’s quacks alerted a Surf City resident to her 14 ducklings that were trapped in a storm drain at North Fourth Street and Barnegat Avenue. Members of the local police and public works departments quickly came to their rescue.

“They pulled the ducklings out and put them in a bucket, and once they got them all out, they put them over by mom and off they went,” said Surf City Patrolwoman Sarah Roe, whose father, Police Chief William Collins, helped save the ducks with Patrolman Victor Rice.

Tom Hudson, superintendent of the public works department, and full-time laborer Ed Oerther pulled up the grate so the officers could scoop up the ducklings.

“Our public works department has the equipment to lift up the grate, and then once the grate comes up, you can pretty much just reach in and grab them,” Roe explained. “They basically just need a pole to prop everything up. It’s a heavy grate, so it usually takes two big, strong men to pick it up. So they’re definitely our people for that job.”

Photo via SCPD
The ducklings huddle with their mother on the
grass after being rescued from a storm drain.

Roe suspects the ducks wandered over from the boat ramp near South Second and North First streets, where a lot of ducks can be seen swimming in the bay. She believes someone might be feeding the ducks from a private dock.

“As crazy as it sounds, they’re native to that area,” Roe stated.

It’s not uncommon for the police department to receive calls for these types of emergencies in the late spring and early summer, when the ducklings arrive, she said.

“They aren’t really aware that they’re going to fall into the storm drain, and then they can’t get out because at this point they can’t really fly,” said Roe. “They just kind of follow mom, and mom hops up, and they go, whoop, right down into the storm drain. But when we get called, it’s an easy enough thing for us to pull them out.”

If anyone comes across an animal trapped inside a drain, Roe recommends contacting the police for help instead of trying to retrieve the animal themselves.

“It’s not something we want just anybody doing,” she said. “Obviously people shouldn’t be touching that sort of property. If they do come across a mama duck and the babies inside the drain, they should just call us because we can get the resources out there to do it and get it done. We don’t want anybody getting hurt trying to stick their arms in the grates. That would be probably a worse situation.”

— Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.