Boy uses jack to get car off neighbor
Mar 14, 2018, 1:25 PM | Updated: Jun 7, 2022, 3:59 pm
SUMTER, S.C. — A 9-year-old boy in South Carolina sprang into action Saturday, using a car jack to lift a fallen vehicle off his neighbor.
Allen Clemmons was working on his mustang when it dropped off the supports, leaving him trapped and yelling for help. His neighbor Malachi Coffey, heard him and thought quickly enough to lift the car before running for help.
Clemmons, who is now recovering in the hospital, says he’s blessed to even be alive and is now calling Malachi his guardian angel.
On Saturday, he was home working on his car when it slipped off the blocks and the jack holding it up, crushing him.
“After it fell on me, I kept hollering and I couldn’t get nobody there,” said Clemmons.
He lay trapped under the car for an hour and a half before giving it one more shot.
Clemmons said, “I asked God to help me, give me one more holler and send an angel by my way and I hollered the last time and then I gave up.”
That’s when he says his guardian angel appeared. Malachi had been playing in the yard behind Allen’s and heard his cry for help.
“He was saying help. I think he was saying he was stuck up under something but I didn’t know what he was talking about,” said Malachi Coffey.
That’s when Clemmons says Malachi jumped into action, using a nearby jack to get the car off of him. Malachi says he learned how to use a car jack from his uncle.
“And he pushed it up under the car, tightened it back up, and I don’t know how he did it but that little fella..the rod was about 2 feet long on that jack and he jacked that car completely up off me,” said Clemmons.
Malachi then ran home to get help.
“When the tow truck came they got another jack and pulled him out,” said Coffey
Clemmons was then airlifted to Columbia, where he’s recovering from six broken ribs and a fractured pelvis.
Even so, Allen says he’s thankful little Malachi heard his calls, “I don’t think I would have made it another 30 minutes.”
Malachi hopes Mr. Clemmons feels better. Clemmons is expected to make a full recovery.
