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Quick-thinking man saves dog's life in horrifying elevator accident

Thankfully, the dog and man were unharmed in the incident.
 By 
Brian Koerber
 on 

A quick-thinking man was able to save a dog after it walked out of an elevator with its owner noticing.

Ben Duke, a manager of The Roadway Inn in Greenville, South Carolina, was near the hotel's elevator when a guest boarded holding his dog's leash. However, the dog, named Boo Boo, was not inside the elevator when the doors closed.

In just seconds, the elevator starts to ascend, causing Duke to hop into action and grab the dog's leash, trying to pull the dog away from the elevator doors.


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Fortunately, the Duke is able to break the dog's leash just as it gets to the door, and the pup is able to walk away unscathed.

Duke posted a surveillance footage of the incident to his Facebook page, where he explained that he broke the leash by pulling as hard as he could.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Fortunately, both Boo Boo and Duke made it out of the incident safely, though Duke says the dog did scratch his face "pretty good."

Duke tells KMBC that the owner is a regular at the hotel, and was extremely upset by the incident.

“He was crying and was so grateful," Duke said. "He just came up and hugged me. It was pretty crazy.”

Duke says he just did the right thing.

“Everybody is calling me a hero, but I can’t imagine the other outcome,” Duke told KMBC. “I just did what you are supposed to do in this situation.”

Topics Viral Videos

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Brian Koerber

Brian was the Culture Editor and has been working at Mashable on the web culture desk since 2014.

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