Falling Toddler Saved By Well-Placed Mattress

On Sunday, a Southern California child was saved from a fall by a quick-witted couple with a box spring. Jennifer and Konrad Lightner, a wife and husband busy moving into a new apartment, were making their way through the driveway of their new Burbank apartment complex when they saw a young child poking his head out of the third-story window. The child's attention was focused on a small pile of toys he'd tossed out the window, and now wanted to retrieve.

The Lightners urged the child, whose name is Yuri, to stay safely inside, but getting through to the little one was a challenge — the child's mother, later interviewed by KTLA 5, said that both of her kids have autism, which hampers their abilities to communicate.

But when Yuri began leaning his way out the window, the screen cover of which he'd quietly pushed out fell onto the driveway below, unbeknownst to his parents, Konrad realized he had to take action. Quickly laying the box spring out on the ground as Yuri climbed a leg over the window sill, he caught the three-year-old as he plunged to the ground, then himself fell back onto the box spring, clutching Yuri safely.

The Lightners stayed with Yuri until his parents were alerted to what had happened, and were thanked by responding firefighters. All in all, the experience was a bit surreal for the man in the right place and right time to play savior: "It feels like I watched a TV show, like it didn't happen to me," Konrad said.

Some 5,000 children are injured each year by falling from windows. If you have a young child with a roaming streak, you should play it safe and get a screen with a lock, or a fastener.