Police, firefighters and helicopter helped rescue man who fell off cliff while having a poo

The call of nature turned into a rescue callout for a man who toppled off a cliff during a toilet stop near Taupo, New Zealand.

The 21-year-old Wellingtonian had to be winched out of a 10-metre gully after falling while defecating in some bushes on the roadside, said Sergeant Shane McNally, of the Taupo police. He had stopped his car about five kilometres north of Wairakei, at 4pm on Sunday afternoon.



"Nature called and he went into a bushy area, lost his footing and has fallen down quite a steep bank," McNally said. The police, firefighters, Land Search and Rescue volunteers, and the Greenlea rescue helicopter came to his rescue after a friend of the man alerted emergency services.

The helicopter's pilot, Nat Every, said the man was trapped in a thick crop of blackberry brambles, but was winched to safety by a LandSAR volunteer. Incredibly, he emerged without a scratch and after an assessment by paramedics, he was taken back to his car.