Officials are warning children not to go looking for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles after three kids and two dogs had to be rescued from a maze-like storm drainage system in Colorado over the weekend. Authorities were sent searching for the group after they reportedly entered the underground system in the Security-Widefield area and got lost, the Security Fire Department said Monday. Located after an "extensive search," the children and dogs were safely extracted via a manhole in the street, more than a half-mile from the spot they'd entered the system, officials said, per ABC News.
The fire department urged parents to speak to their children about "the dangers of playing in and around" storm drains, warning that a person lost underground risks drowning, hypothermia, oxygen deficiency, inhalation of toxic gases, even rattlesnake bites, per the Colorado Springs Gazette. "Kids may think it would be fun to explore storm drains looking for those ninja turtles, but it can be very dangerous and even deadly," the department said. In California, a 59-year-old woman died hours after she was rescued from an underground storm drain system on Monday, People reports. She'd been missing for two weeks. (More Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stories.)