BY Ottawa Citizen,

A Welland man has died in a freak accident.

Lionel Desjardins, 57, fell down a sewer Tuesday morning, trying to retrieve money that had been dropped through the grate.

Police say Desjardins had reported his wallet and other personal items stolen earlier in the day.

He called them, telling them he had found his things in the storm sewer. Police told Desjardins not to get the items himself, to wait for officers to come to the scene.

However he did not wait, and became wedged in the opening.

Paramedics frantically attempted CPR on the victim, who was trapped head first in the sewer outside the Kimono restaurant on Niagara Street. His head was in water about four feet down.

The rescue crew's only option was to pull him out using a tow truck.

"They hooked him up, they put a safety harness on him, they got his feet out because he fell in head-first, we pulled him out nice and slow" Mike St Amand/pulled victim out

Ron Beauparlant saw the man bent over the manhole cover this morning, but he thought he was a member of a work crew:

"About half-hour, 45 minutes later, I see all these trucks and ambulances and I says, oh the guy obviously fell in."

The big question: why did the victim use a crowbar to wedge the cover off the manhole?

The victim was not conscious when they pulled him out. They worked on him in the back of the ambulance but it was futile. Desjardins was declared dead at Welland County Hospital.

An autopsy will be done to determine the cause of death.

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