An Arsenal fan who stormed out of his house after the team lost has saved a woman's life after spotting her stuck in mud. Alastair Cass, 40, left his home in frustration following the Gunners' 3-0 defeat to Brighton, but heard a woman crying for help in a valley behind his house in Devon.
The woman, named Sallie, had been stuck up to her chest in mud for four hours. Alastair raced down with his quad bike and, with the help of ladders, rope and emergency services, dragged her to safety.
Rescue mission in Devon
Alastair, of Chulmleigh, said: 'If it went differently, I would have stayed and watched the post-match interviews and so on – but luckily that wasn't the case on this day!'
He added: 'As I live on a 150-acre property, you do hear things now and then – but I was walking over to one of my barns and I heard the same noise again and was like “something's up”!'
'I jumped on the quad bike and started to head down to the river and then heard it again and kept going down, and that was only when I could finally hear the word “help” clearly.'
Woman freed after two-hour operation
After following the sound of her cries, Alastair found the woman on another nearby property. 'It's such an unkempt and dangerous area to go in – but I eventually came across her down a ditch, stuck in mud up to her chest line,' he said.
'She was shivering. I swore when I saw her cause I just couldn't believe what I was seeing after living here for 28 years!'
Alastair found Sallie at 5pm – and she had been stuck there since 1:30pm. He raced back home on his quadbike to gather rope and wooden boards so he could spread his weight out over the mud.
When he returned, he tied the rope onto Sallie and put the boards down to try and pull her out, but had to call emergency services after it failed. The Chulmleigh fire brigade, followed by specialist teams, South Molton police, boat rescue service, four ambulance crews and multiple helicopters came to the scene.
The intense rescue operation took two hours – and Sallie was eventually freed. She was in hospital until 4am the next day.
She also wrote in her thank-you card to Alastair: 'I have never been so happy to see another human being as I was to see you that day!'
Upon saving the woman's life, she thanked him in a card which read: 'Thanks to Arsenal for being rubbish at football!'
