A distressed call came into the local police station in Manchester. A mans panicked voice claimed strange noises were coming from the derelict house next door. He couldnt say exactly what was happening but insisted officers come at once.
A team was dispatched, along with a police doga sharp-eyed German Shepherd. They checked the area, knocking on doors and speaking to neighbours. Most hadnt heard a thing, save for an elderly bloke who mentioned faint groans in the night, though hed put it down to someones telly playing too loud.
The officers approached the suspicious house. Its fence sagged, the door was peeling, and the windows were thick with grime. Inside, things got even stranger. The floorboards in the main room were splintered, a gaping crack splitting the middle, plunging into darkness below. The air smelled damp, and the whole place felt seconds from collapse.
The shepherd froze, then suddenly barked, clawing at the floor near the hole, staring intently downward. This wasnt normalthe dog had caught a scent. The officers exchanged glances. One flicked on his torch and leaned in, shining the beam below. What he saw stunned them all.
At firstjust dust and debris. Then the light caught something dreadful: a man.
He lay motionless beneath the wreckage, half-buried in dirt and broken wood. Unconscious, his face barely visible under the filth.
Later, they learned he was the homeowner. Days earlier, a minor tremor had shaken the area, and his old, poorly reinforced house gave way. The floor caved, sending him crashing down, his head striking hard. Trapped for days, he couldnt move or cry for help.
If not for that neighbours calland the dogs sharp nosehe might not have made it.
They rushed him to hospital. And that shepherd, the officers said, hadnt just saved a life that dayit had dug a man right out of the earth.
