MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. — A Muskegon Heights man was rescued in his home Saturday after falling unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning. He had been using his stove to heat up his house and wouldn't have made it through the night without the help of two Muskegon Heights police officers.
It was a regular shift when officers Amiya Overstreet and Mitchell Wilson received a dispatch call for a well-being check.
"A sister from Detroit, Michigan, called and said, "Hey, I need a check well-being done on my brother; he hasn't answered his cell phone for two weeks. I tried to get in contact with his wife. I can't get in contact with his wife either," said Overstreet.
The sister gave them an address on East Broadway Avenue, but the officers found the house empty except for two vehicles in the driveway, neither of which were registered to the man.
"I'm kind of looking through the windows in the house again. I noticed there's, like, a younger female's belongings in there. So I'm like, 'This is kind of odd,'" Wilson said.
The officers decided to conduct some good old-fashioned police work by canvassing the neighborhood and researching dispatch calls related to the man.
"[Overstreet's] still gathering information, so I go knock on a couple neighbors' doors. 'Hey, have you ever seen this guy coming and going? Have you seen him recently?' They're like, 'No,'" said Wilson.
"I dug deeper into the history; I located that he had police contact in the 2100 block of Superior. So, my partner and I were like, 'Okay, well, let's go check this address, because maybe he is there,'" Overstreet said.
The officer's knocks on the house's door on Superior went unanswered save for the barks of a dog.
"As we're checking the area looking for him, we noticed him laying on the ground completely unconscious, with his dog laying right next to him. So we started just kind of banging on the windows trying to get his attention, anything we can. And he ended up just mumbling out a bunch of stuff we couldn't understand at all," said Wilson.
That's when Wilson and Overstreet knew they had to get inside.
"He's moaning and groaning. So I'm like, 'Okay, at this point, we need to make entry.' While I contacted ProMed, I heard a clicking noise," Overstreet said. "It was just clicking. So I'm like, 'Okay, that's pretty weird. Why is his stove just clicking and he's on the ground?'" So at that point, we decided to contact Muskegon Heights Fire Department."
Muskegon Heights firefighters were able to safely get inside while first responders with Trinity Health worked to revive the man.
"I really want to give [the Muskegon Heights Fire Department] their praise, because they played a huge part in this too. That's something that I can't do. To be able to help make entry into that house with the gas and all of that, so big ups to them," said Overstreet. "Trinity ProMed as well, to be able to give them the life-saving measurements that he needed. Ultimately, he's fine. We contacted his sister. They were able to speak with him."
The man and his dog are expected to make a full recovery but the situation could have ended very differently.
"You could literally touch the walls, and they were hot to the touch," Overstreet added.
"Fire said when we got there, like, 'If you guys didn't put in that extra work to find him, he wouldn't have made it through the night,'" said Wilson.
These officers say scenarios like this are why they're in law enforcement in the first place.
"It feels great. It's just a reminder that the reason why I got into this job is to protect and to serve and to see that I did good and helped someone and helped someone's family and [it] makes you feel good about yourself," said Overstreet.
"Serve and protect: what I'm here for," Wilson said.
FOX 17 is proud to partner with ESCAPE Fire Safety to spread awareness of how to protect yourself, your home, and your family in case of a fire or carbon monoxide poisoning. Through our joint program, Keep Michigan Safe, you can find out how to make a plan for escaping a fire or how to get smoke and CO detectors installed in your home.
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