Smartphone app helps rescue baby duck

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - There is an app for almost anything, even duck rescues.

It all started when a mother duck led her babies across a sewer grate. All the baby ducks fell down into the sewer but one was just out of the reach of people who were able to save the others.

West Lafayette firefighters and police tried to rescue the baby duck for nearly an hour Tuesday. They even pumped water down the sewer hoping the duck would float to rescuers before someone nearby had an idea that was a little strange.

"I was talking to a woman who was watching the softball field and she said someone needs to quack like a duck, so I thought, "I wonder if there's an app for that." So I pulled out my iPhone and I found a duck call app," West Lafayette Police Officer Janet Shepherd said.

Officer Shepherd said the baby duck responded within minutes to the duck call that was called "Mallard Comeback" and ran to the firefighter in the sewer.

She said in all her years training cadaver dogs for search and rescue missions, this is by far the strangest. She said that without the West Lafayette Fire Department, the duck may have never made it out.

"This was their rescue. I just used the duck call app to call it to us, yeah, but they were here for quite a while using their resources and I think this is a great time where we can see that the police and fire can work together and rescue a baby duck," Officer Shepherd said.

Officer Shepherd said one of the firefighters took the duck home to live on his farm where it will have its very own pond and no more sewer grates.