Going, going, not: Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton gets stuck in elevator

PHOENIX — Freedom smells fantastic, just ask Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, who was stuck in an elevator for nearly half an hour before firefighters sprung him loose.

Stanton told Arizona’s Morning News anchors Jayme West and Jim Sharpe on Tuesday, “It’s a little harrowing,” being trapped.

His security detail was along for the ride Monday afternoon at City Hall. He also had cellphone reception and an Internet connection so he wasn’t cut off from the world.

“As always, I was running about 15 minutes late to pick up my son from school, jumped in that elevator, the thing jerked about three times and just stops,” Stanton said.

“We wait, we wait … after about five minutes we call and find out, No. 1: it’s stuck and No. 2: it’s going to take at least a half-hour for the mechanic to get there.”

He’d already begun to wonder about the school’s late-pickup fee, he joked, as the car sat between the eighth and ninth floors.

Then the walls started closing in on him.

“You begin to get (claustrophobia),” Stanton said. “I think, ‘this may be the end’ … it’s really bummer news because it looks like the Diamondbacks are going to have a good season and I’m going to miss it.”

A crew from Fire Station No. 1, on Fourth Avenue between Van Buren and Fillmore streets, rolled to the rescue.

Officer Lee and I presenting a "thank you" cake to Station 1 @PhxFirefighters for rescuing us from stuck elevator. pic.twitter.com/8sPMRDX7dj

— Greg Stanton (@MayorStanton) March 8, 2016

The mayor brought them cake and candy as thanks.

“It’s not on their firefighter diet, but what the heck,” he said.

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