Ducklings Plucked From Park Slope Grate In NYPD Rescue

NEW YORK — A mother duck and her nine babies were crossing a New York City street when three ducklings fell through a storm grate and had to be retrieved by police.

Witness Lynn Harris told the news site Gothamist people had noticed the ducks and were following beside them through Park Slope July 28, trying to provide a safe escort, when the mother duck was spooked by a dog.

That's when three of her duckling dropped through the grate outside New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital on Sixth Street.

A crowd including animal rescuer Sean Casey gathered to help. Police officers opened the grate — but the metal covered then fell into the hole.

"Everyone literally screamed and it was then totally silent while a cop jumped in and—tick tock tick tock—came back up with one tiny duck," Harris told Gothamist,

Then a nurse in the crowd peeked into the drain and, after a few seconds, shouted, "They're alive!"

The ducks were taken to an animal shelter.