A Harford County Sheriff's Office deputy and civilian employee rescued three ducklings Monday that were trapped in a storm drain behind a building on Main Street in Bel Air.
For the last two months, people had been watching a mother duck that, for a second year in a row, built a nest in a courtyard on Burns Alley, which is a block off Main and runs behind the Sheriff's Office headquarters and other buildings.
The eight ducklings hatched Monday morning, said Stephanie Schneider, firm administrator with Snee, Mahoney, Lutche and Helmlinger Law Firm. When the mom left the nest with her babies, three of them fell into a nearby storm drain, Schneider said.
Staff at the Harford County Housing Agency, which is next to the law firm, either heard or saw the trapped ducklings and they and employees at other nearby companies tried a number of times, unsuccessfully, to lift the storm drain grates.
"One man was walking through the alley, then he left. I went inside to call the town," Schneider said.
When she came back out, the man had returned and he and a deputy had lifted the gates and rescued the ducklings, Schneider said.
The civilian employee was Daniel Thayer, the deputy was DFC Richard Hardick, both of whom work at the Family Justice Center, according to Cristie Kahler, spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office.
Hardick took the ducklings to a local veterinarian, where they were being cared for, Kahler said.