Fire department rescues man stuck in tree

This guy will never, ever live this down.

A man in the US state of Virginia thought he would save the fire department some trouble by taking it upon himself to rescue a cat from a tree.

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Problem was, once he got up there, he couldn't get down.

As a result, he had to be rescued by the fire department.

This all went down about 9.30am on Friday morning, when he became stuck about 15m off the ground after outclimbing his ladder.

And frankly, we relate. The last time Pickle climbed a tree it took a few minutes of psyching up before making the inevitable leap back to the ground.

But words don't come close to describing how embarrassing it must be as an adult to be rescued from up there.

"This is not something we normally do," Norfolk fire chief Harry Worley said.

And we can just imagine the tone he said it in.

The cat was successfully coaxed down by firefighters and reunited with its owner.

The man has not been identified, probably because he likely ran off to find a hole to hide in.

And sooner or later, he's going to need to be rescued from that too.