Lost Hiker Rescued After 3 Days in Best Buy Parking Lot
They didn't even have what he needed
Ratmaze Shopping Center, IL—A man was airlifted to safety after he was found disoriented but conscious in the Best Buy parking lot, located in the regionally notorious Ratmaze Shopping Center.
The man stopped by in hopes of finding headphones on the morning of a big trip, which didn’t leave time for an Amazon order.
“Just normal ones, you know,” he clarified. “Not like cheap free airplane ones, but not so expensive that you’d wear them to record a hip-hop album.”
When Best Buy had nothing of the sort, the man returned to his vehicle and attempted to leave. That’s when the trouble began.
“There’s no exit in front of the store, which seems odd,” the man said. “I drove through the employee parking area and past the loading dock out back. That can’t be right, can it? How would I have even known that entrance led to a Best Buy at all?”
The man said he was fortunate to have basic camping and survival equipment packed in his RAV4 which allowed him to build a fire for warmth which rescue crews eventually spotted from the air.
Locals have expressed frustration and concern about the shopping center—which some describe as a Pac-Man level with store clusters where the special dots would be—for years.
“We, ourselves, know how to get to and from Best Buy. Don’t be ridiculous,” first responders said to reporters about their decision to airlift the man. “It’s just too close to Chik-fil-A to get an ambulance through on the street.”
Bystanders said the story reminded them of an incident last year in which a man tried to leave nearby Verizon with no success until he had to call for help through a pneumatic delivery tube operated by a pharmacy nearly a quarter of a mile away.
A Southern Illinois Chronicle reporter contributed to this story while on-scene, and we miss him very much.