Children's toys are for fun. But as the list below shows, these fun little objects can also play a role in connecting life and death.
We present you the top 10 toys that saved lives.
10. Remote control toy truck
Ernie Fessenden had a brother who served in Afghanistan. And, of course, Ernie wanted his brother to come home safe and sound. So he contacted the owner of a toy store, together they added a wireless camera and infrared lighting to a remote controlled toy truck and sent it to Afghanistan.
One day, Ernie's brother, Chris, lent a toy truck to a group of soldiers who were about to go on patrol. They sent a remote controlled toy truck forward in search of danger. And he found her. The toy truck hit the wires of the explosives disguised on the road, and it detonated. The soldiers were not hurt.
9. Inflatable toy turtle
In July 2017, heavy rains hit the Chinese city of Liuyang, located in Hunan province. And 13 people were trapped in their homes as water rose rapidly around them. At this time, several quick-thinking police officers ran to a nearby toy store. There they found a bright green inflatable turtle. Back at the scene, the police quickly inflated the toy and rescued people in less than 2 hours.
Although the actions of the police were heroic, they themselves were a little embarrassed by the sight of the lifesaving apparatus. “Sorry that our ship is… too cute. But, most importantly, all people are safe, ”they said.
8. Toy lightsaber
For the attention of Star Wars fans! Luke Skywalker appears to be alive and well in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
According to eyewitnesses, on the night of Thursday, March 17, 2017, the stepdaughter and her stepfather began to quarrel. In the heat of an argument, a 17-year-old girl grabbed two kitchen knives. But her stepfather had his own weapon - a lightsaber. True, a toy, but a real Jedi is not a hindrance, is it?
Witnesses said that the man successfully repelled the attack of his stepdaughter. May the Force keep them both.
7. Minion
For those who don't know, minions are small yellow animated characters that first appeared in public in the 2010 Despicable Me cartoon. They became so popular that they got their own cartoon, which grossed $ 1.159 billion in 2015. And although in the cartoon world Minions prefer to work for supervillains, in real life they can do good deeds.
On the night of July 16, 2015 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a 5-year-old girl was playing in her bedroom on the third floor of an apartment building. And somehow she fell out of the window. However, the plush minion with which the baby was playing softened her fall and saved her life. She escaped with a broken hand.
Well, at least in the eyes of one happy little girl, minions have become superheroes.
6. Doll
In September 1940, a German bomb was dropped on the Welsh city of Haverfordwest.She ended up in a place near the house where 2-year-old Dorothy Owen lived.
Her mother discovered that the ceiling of her little daughter's bedroom had collapsed. While frantically raking the rubble, she discovered that her daughter was still alive. The doll's solid head, which she held onto when the ceiling collapsed, protected the girl's head from being hit.
5. Clicker
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of French Normandy. The event was attended by 156,000 people, of whom 4,500 were killed and thousands more were injured or missing.
Some American soldiers took with them a toy that could be found inside a box of crackers. She was known as the "clicker" because of the noise she made.
For Captain Sam Gibbons of the 101st Airborne Regiment of the US Army, this tiny child's toy became a friend's or foe's identification signal.
After jumping with a parachute in complete darkness, Gibbons landed in a pasture surrounded by German troops. After half an hour of crawling, he made his way onto the road and met another soldier there. Not knowing if he was an American or German soldier, Gibbons clicked on his clicker.
“I clicked and he answered with two clicks. Guys, how glad I was to see him, ”the captain later said.
4. Water weapons
On a hot summer day, a child has several ways to cool off, and the most fun of them is shooting a water gun. The modern toy industry offers both small and giant models, from which you can douse your opponent from head to toe. And when kids go berserk, engaging in wet shootouts with their friends, all parents caught in the crossfire beg for mercy.
On May 31, 2016, those parental screams must have morphed into a thank you chorus for five North Dakota children. In the midst of a general water war, which was raging in the area next to their apartment complex, boys and girls smelled smoke. He led them to an apartment on fire. Worse, there was a man inside.
The children started firing water guns in an attempt to put out the fire. By the time the fire department arrived at the scene, the fire was already smoldering and almost extinguished.
3. Toy foxes
A constant participant in many fairy tales about cunning and ingenuity, she also entered the list of toys that saved human lives.
During a visit to Beijing, British politician Jeffrey Clifton-Brown received a gift from an online store - several stuffed toy foxes. At first he intended to throw them away, but then he decided to bring them as a gift to the family. And, as it turned out, he made the right choice.
Leaving the hotel, Clifton Brown fell into a well shaft. And it was the soft toys he wanted to give up that ultimately softened his fall.
“I took this huge bag with soft foxes, and by a lucky chance it literally saved my life,” said Clifton-Brown in an interview.
2. Driving skills in the video game Mario Kart
While some seek to ban video games, considering them almost the main evil for children, others learn vital lessons from them.
One day, 10-year-old Griffin Sanders and his 4-year-old brother were traveling as passengers in a car driven by their grandmother. She suddenly lost consciousness and the car turned into oncoming traffic.
And then Griffin took action.
“I couldn't get to the brakes because my grandmother was on her way,” Sanders later said. "Then I just took and drove the car into a ditch."
Then Sanders turned and looked in the back seat, where his younger brother was playing carelessly on his iPad, unaware that his older brother may have just saved his life.
The boy could only thank his driving experience gained in Mario Kart, which helped to keep his cool in a seemingly hopeless situation.
1. Toy cart
This story began as a family idyll: once the dad put his one-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter on a red plastic toy cart and began to roll around the house.
But a terrible thing happened: a woman, approaching them in a car, for a moment took her eyes off the road and crashed into a cart.
It's amazing that the brother and sister survived, all because of the little toy they rode. Despite the fact that it was pulled under the car and stretched 15 meters, the cart did not fall apart and protected its little passengers from certain death.