VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Would you climb down into a storm drain, but not stop there?
Would you also walk about 30 yards in a dark, wet, bug-infested tunnel of a storm drain?
That's what Virginia Beach Police Officer Isaac Ankrom decided to do.
"It was a normal call to service, some baby ducks had fallen down a storm drain," Ankrom said.
Ankrom is talking about a call he responded to a few weeks ago. It happened at a storm drain near Town Center.
"I saw that this grate was completely off," he said. "So I knew someone had to go in the hole, I just didn't know who."
Initially, he was waiting for animal control officers, but after time passed, he radioed a fellow cop as was revealed on his body-worn camera, which captured part of his conversation.
"It's like a 10-foot drop with a ladder and I'm tempted to just do down there and grab 'em," Ankrom said into the radio. "I didn't know if you have those, like wading boots that you always have."
His friend did and was about to bring them by.
Officer Ankrom had another concern.
"I called—I put in an order for the city to come out and fix the grate, cause somebody's gonna get hurt," he said.
Eventually, his cop buddy shows up with the boots and went down the ladder into the storm drain.
The body-worn camera shows Ankrom descending the ladder into the storm drain, it reveals the tunnel he's about to go into in search of the two stranded ducks.
But there's a problem.
"So once I got in, I tried to squeeze through with my gear but I couldn't get through," Ankrom said. "So I had to hand back up my gear."
That included his body cam, which is why we can't show how deep he went in into the tunnel.
"It goes pretty far, it goes straight and it's a pretty large tunnel," he can be heard saying.
He says the distance is about 30 yards.
"When I first went in, they were swimming away and I was chasing them and I was like 'This is gonna be all day.' Had my flashlight and I had a bucket and that was it," he said. "And we were ok. You could see the sunlight this way. Obviously, the further they took me, the darker it was getting and it was getting a little creepy."
Eventually, Ankrom emerges with the ducklings—mission accomplished!
For those reasons, we surprised the officer with a News 3 Everyday Hero award, along with a $300 Visa gift card from our community partner Southern Bank.
As a result of this rescue, I asked the officer: was there a little bit of razzing by some of his co-workers?
"Yeah, the next day there were rubber duckies all over the precinct, he said. "The nickname, the duck whisperer."
