Parents often joke that kids leaving their toys around will be “the death” of them, but sadly, that almost became a true statement for one family. An Alabama father is counting his blessings after nearly dying trying to retrieve his kid’s soccer ball during a storm.
According to multiple sources, on June 27, 2025, dad Drew Owen was chasing around his kids’ soccer balls when his yard was flooded because of a storm. When the 6’2″ tall, 235-pound man got too close to the storm drain pipe in his yard, it “sucked him up like a twig” and proceeded to drag him 500 feet.
“Of course, I could not see anything; it was dark, and this was nothing but water,” the dad shared. “But the ball was somewhere in this area. So, I went to step to go get it, and when I did, this ditch is steep and I stumbled into the water,” he told WBRC.
It happened quickly, the whole ordeal lasting less than a minute, but the father says it was the most harrowing 30 to 45 seconds of his life.
“The water was flowing so hard, and that whole pipe was nothing but water,” he said to WVTM. “So I could not breathe or anything. And I didn’t have time to get, like, gasp for air when it happened, because it happened so fast.”
The 500-foot drain took him to a nearby highway where he was able to use a tree branch to pull himself up and out to safety, WBRC reported. Owen was convinced he was not going to survive the ordeal and had the heartbreaking realization that had one of his kids gone to retrieve the balls, the child likely would have drowned.
Owen and his wife Kasey, now are advocating for safety measures to be installed to hopefully save another family from the same heartache.
