How’s this for a bizarre sequence of events? On April 4, 1958, it was reported that a car driven by Sacramento, California resident John Wilke swerved out of control to avoid hitting a little girl that ran out into the street. 

Sadly, the car hit a 14-year-old boy named Philip Nemeth who had been riding his bicycle.

The 9-year-old girl – Theresa Millaway – feared that she had caused the boy’s death and ran back to her house and swallowed lye concentrate – aka drain cleaner – in an effort to kill herself.

Her mother realized what Theresa had done and quickly drove her to the hospital for treatment, but the car stalled along the way.

Luckily, a lineman from the telephone company noticed what had happened and climbed the nearest pole, hooked up his handset to tap into the phone line, and contacted the highway patrol.

They dispatched a patrol car and rushed Theresa to the hospital. Both Theresa and Philip were reported to be on the mend at the time that this story was originally published.