Heroic Duckling Rescue
On July 18, Security Patrol Officer Kenneth Tran was dispatched to Clubhouse 4 where residents had called about chirping sounds coming from the pool filter drain area. Tran searched the area around the pool and discovered that the drain area of the pool was inaccessible from the topside. While checking the area, he noticed a mother duck with six ducklings walking around the pool as if searching for something. With no luck of finding the source of the chirping, Officer Tran left the area.
The next day, Tran mentioned the call to Supervisor Robert Martinez and asked if they could go back to Pool 4 to check for chirping. When they arrived, they saw no ducks and heard no chirping. They searched the pool area and didn’t find anything, but before they left, Tran decided to check a manhole cover located near the Clubhouse office.
After lifting off the cover, Martinez and Tran saw six little ducklings in the drainage/filter area struggling to find space on a small pipe where some were resting. Tran offered to put on a pair of swimming trunks to retrieve the ducklings, but he found a net nearby. Using the net, he retrieved all the ducklings and safely placed them into a plastic bin.
“Officer Tran’s commitment to search and rescue of the ducklings and his offer to swim into the filter room to retrieve the ducklings shows his dedication to not only the residents of Laguna Woods Village, but also to the wildlife that share this space,” wrote Carlos Rojas, chief of the Department of Security Services, in Tran’s division commendation. “Tran is commended for his motivation, dedication, and his exceptional efforts, which readily demonstrate his commitment to the residents and wildlife of Laguna Woods. Well done.”
