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| Tom Stilwell |
(Scroll down for video) A man is lucky to be alive after he fell 15 floors.
The man found himself locked out of his apartment, and he came up with what he thought was a brilliant idea to get into his house.
Tom Stilwell, 20, knocked at his neighbor’s house and asked if he can jump off her balcony to get into his house. The neighbor allowed the man to jump. Stilwell jumped off the balcony, but missed, and he fell from the 15th floor of his apartment building in Auckland, New Zealand.
He was rushed to the hospital. He was initially listed in critical condition, but his condition has since been upgraded to stable. Police said that the 20-year-old man found himself locked out of his 14th-floor apartment in central Auckland around 2:00 am on Sunday, when he decided to jump onto his balcony in order to get inside.
Geraldine Bautista, a resident in the building, said that Stilwell came knocking on her door at the 15th floor at 2:00 am. He appeared to have been drinking. The woman said: “he asked if he can use my balcony to get to his apartment. ‘Please let me jump off the balcony I'm not going to bother, just let me use your balcony.’ he said.”
She said she never thought he would go ahead with the plan. "In my mind I thought, 'Well, I'll let him see that it is really impossible.’ I did not think he would jump, because it's really scary," Bautista added.
He did try to jump and he fell 15 floors onto the roof of an adjacent building. Stilwell suffered neck and back fractures, a broken wrist, and suspected internal injuries. He survived, and is expected to make a full recovery.