California Woman, 30, Rescued After Getting Stuck Headfirst In A Chimney

Hey lady, you're not Santa Claus.

A California woman, who reportedly had been in a fight with her family, came up with a wild way to gain entry to their house Sunday night. Fire officials say the unidentified 30-year-old woman tried to slide down the chimney of the Paradise Hills home in the San Diego suburbs.

After being trapped in the chimney for an hour, rescuers were finally able to free the woman, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The newspaper reported the incident started around 5 p.m. The woman's mother told authorities her daughter crawled into the chimney.

San Diego Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Tommy Charpentier told OnScene TV that they found the Santa Claus-wannabe stuck upside down with her head approximately six feet off the ground and her feet were 8 to 10 feet from the top of the chimney.

A rescue team attempts to remove a woman from a chimney / via Fox5

So headfirst? Yes, headfirst.

“When we had crews first arrive at scene, we did confirm that she was stuck headfirst with her feet up in the chimney, about midway down,” Charpentier added. “Her head was approximately six feet off the ground and she was eight or ten feet from the top of the chimney.”

The fire official noted that his crew was also trying to "breach" a wall inside the house to get the woman out, but ultimately, the tripod used by firefighters on the roof did the job as they pulled the woman out to safety.

Before you go judging this woman thinking she figured out a new, dumb way of gaining entry into a house, keep in mind this has been attempted before with serious consequences. In 2015, a suspected burglar died after being caught in a chimney. He died when the homeowner lit a fire.

In 1986, a burglar was trapped in the chimney of a vacant Florida home and tried shouting for help, but neighbors told authorities they couldn't tell where the sounds were coming from. Workers even reported hearing tapping noises, but they didn't think someone was in the chimney.

Eventually, the homeowner returned home to a sickening smell and couldn't figure out what was going on before spotting "a pair of legs dangling in the fireplace."

In other words, if you're going to slide down a chimney, just don't do it. You're going to end up in a psych ward or dead and causing one helluva smell.

Again, don't go down the chimney. It's a bad idea.