Posted 3/28/2006 05:32:00 PM by Douglas

I don't know how common this is, but I still content it has more to do with bad parenting than with faulty crane games.

Devin Haskin isn't the first little boy to find the inside of a toy machine too enticing to resist.

When the 3-year-old Austin boy crawled through the discharge chute of a Toy Chest claw machine at a Godfather's Pizza here, he ended up on the other side of the glass surrounded by stuffed animals.

Rescuers had to pry the door open to get Devin out, though the boy was in no hurry to leave.

"When we got it open, he didn't want to come out," Fire Chief Dan Wilson said Tuesday. "One of my firefighters had to reach inside and get him. He was happy in there."

Two years ago, a boy crawled inside a toy machine at a Piggly Wiggly in Sheboygan, Wis., and was rescued with the help of a locksmith. Last year, a toddler climbed into a toy machine at a Wal-Mart in Elkhart, Ind. Workers used tools to free the boy.

Ron Morocco, chief executive of Rock Management & Associates, a Sprit Lake, Iowa, company that owns the Godfather's restaurant in Austin, said the machine would be removed until the company talked to the manufacturer.

"We're very happy the young boy wasn't hurt," he said.

I guess it's easier than watching your children. I think there needs to be a law. Your kid gets stuck in the machine, you gotta win him back, fair and square, with the crane and a roll of quarters. No Exceptions!

Dammit, and all I wanted was the lobster harmonica!