Cop Handcuffs Himself to Suicidal Woman to Heroically Save the Day

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
by Kiri Blakeley Yesterday at 4:56 PM

Police officers are called upon to do all kinds of extraordinary things. They often have to make split-second decisions about how to save someone -- and whether that would mean putting themselves in danger too. Yes, they are cops. They have jobs to do. But they are also people with lives and families and friends and pets. And they want to go home alive to them. So I can only imagine what was going through this police officer's mind when a young suicidal lady crawled onto the ledge of a high billboard and threatened to jump. But the officer decided to do something remarkable. He handcuffed himself to her.

It sounds like something out of a movie -- and I'm pretty sure that scene has been done more than once -- but this really happened, in Beijing, China.

Pictures capture the incredible scene as the distraught woman sits on the ledge of a billboard, threatening to jump. One police officer reached over, grabbed her wrist, and slapped handcuffs on her. He then handcuffed the other side to his own wrist. And then, just to make sure she knew that he was serious ...

He threw away the key!!

Realizing that if she jumped, she would take another person with her, the woman apparently stopped to consider what she was about to do. And changed her mind. Said one cop:

She knew then that if she died, she'd take someone with her and that seemed to bring her back.

The officer was then able to tie a rope around the woman and haul her back onto the building where he stood.

It's hard to say whether the woman would have been able to jump with enough force and weight to carry the man over the side too, but hell, would YOU have risked that? Not sure I would have.

No word on what brought the lady to the brink of suicide, but kudos to this cop for risking his own life to save that of a desperate stranger. The only thing that would make this story sweeter is if these two got married or something, but, well ... I've seen too many movies.

What would you have done?

Image via stevendepolo/Flickr

?