Tulsa Firefighter Plunges Into Sewer To Retrieve Woman’s Wallet

Tulsa firefighters save people, homes and animals, but this week they saved something different - and one of them had to climb 20 feet down a sewer to do it.

Storm and sewer grates - we walk past them on streets, or, in this case, a Walmart parking lot at Admiral and Memorial; that’s where one Tulsa woman dropped her wallet at the wrong place and time.

Fortunately for her, Tulsa Fire Captain Kofi Wallace was at the right place at the right time - in line buying groceries for his station.

“She says, 'you’re the fire department, I got a favor to ask,’” Wallace said.

The answer, of course, was yes.

“I drive over there and look - it's 20 feet down, in the water, in the sewer,” he said. “I didn't have any tools with me or anything like that, just a bunch of groceries and a cargo van.”

So he called for backup, and several firefighters with Station 3-1 came out.

They helped Wallace open the heavy grate then gave him the honor of making the 20 foot climb down to the sewer.

“I'm not gonna say I'm afraid of spiders or rats or anything like that, but it definitely crossed my mind going down into this hole,” Wallace said.

But in the end, he rescued the wallet with a smile, giving way to an even bigger grin for the woman who got her wallet back.

“She was so happy,” Wallace said.