April 28, 2006 | Funny Bits

Ho, ho, <i>whoa!</i>

Hear something strange in your chimney? No, it's not Santa Claus. It could, however, be a man bearing gifts of a different sort - like Michael Urbano, a Hayward, CA man who last week found himself stuck in a chimney - naked -  after being locked out of his stepmother's house.

Urbano, 23,  returned home from a night of bar-hopping at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning and found the one-story house empty. He didn't have a key, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, so he climbed to the roof in hopes of getting inside via Santa's magic method.

Lacking Santa's magical powers, Urbano resorted to Batman's craft. He disconnected a cable TV wire from the roof, took off his clothes -- he didn't think he'd fit with them on -- and began rappelling down the chimney, according to police. The cable snapped, however, sending Urbano plummeting down the chimney until he got stuck inside it, three-quarters of the way down.

Urbano stayed inside the chimney for four hours until his neighbors heard him crying for help. Police came to his rescue, pushing him up and out to freedom from below, and then arrested him on suspicion of being high on drugs.

If only all chimneys came with a naked man inside them!

• Naked man gets stuck in chimney [SF Gate]