SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- A 7-year-old boy had to be rescued with the help of a locksmith Sunday after crawling into a Sheboygan supermarket's stuffed animal game machine while his father talked on the telephone.

Shift Cmdr. Mark Zittel of the Sheboygan Fire Department said the boy was sitting in the glass enclosure with the stuffed animals when rescuers arrived.

He said the boy, whose name was not released by authorities, somehow crawled through about an 8-by-11-inch opening to get into the machine. The stuffed animals are prizes that can be hooked with a cranelike device.

"He was just relaxed. He wasn't upset. He wasn't crying. It didn't seem like he was upset at all," said Murray Patz, who took pictures of the incident.

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The Boy Who Wanted A Toy

Zittel said the boy's father was 3 feet away at a pay phone, and when he turned around the child was in the machine.

He said the boy stayed calm and didn't panic as firefighters responded to the Piggly Wiggly store, moved the machine to the back of the store and got a locksmith to open the main loading door. The process took about an hour.

The boy was not injured, but rescuers haven't figured out how the boy was able to crawl into the game or why no one in the store's busy lobby spotted him and stopped him before he got inside.

Firefighters said the boy and father left Piggly Wiggly without telling them how the boy got trapped in the toy machine.

"We'd like to see how he got through this opening that is basically the size of a paper -- 8 by 11," Zittel said.

Piggly Wiggly has removed the toy machine.

Photos courtesy The Sheboygan Press.