Uh, Is That a Car Stuck Standing On Its Rear Bumper?

At first glance, it looks like some otherworldly force is holding this car upright in the middle of a storm. It's as if the car might fly away or start walking on its hind wheels.

According to Fox 61 News, Lisa Beaulieu was stuck inside the car with her two young kids for 45 minutes before Connecticut's Suffield police department and fire department were able to get them out.

But how exactly did Beaulieu's car get stuck in that position?

I called the Suffield fire department to ask Fire Chief Charles Flynn what happened. Flynn said that a severe thunderstorm downed a utility pole on August 2nd, the day of the incident. and that Beaulieu's car caught a piece of the broken utility pole. As the car drove forward, he explained, the cable hoisted the car onto its back wheels.

"It pulled her up just like a jet coming into an aircraft carrier where the tailhook grabs onto the cable," Flynn said. "She wasn't texting. She wasn't doing anything wrong. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Beaulieu could not be immediately reached for comment, but Flynn's explanation is consistent with what she told the local NBC affiliate. "We saw a telephone pole snap and fall down as we were approaching it," Beaulieu said. "Our car got stuck in the wires that were attached to it, and we got air lifted."

Flynn said that Eversource, a power company that provides service to Suffield, had to arrive and ensure that the cable was dead before removing Beaulieu and her family. Eversource categorized this incident as "Priority 1," meaning lives were in danger.

Tricia Taskey Modifica, a representative for Eversource's Connecticut operations, confirmed that Eversource de-energized the cable so that the family could get out of the car.

While I couldn't conclusively determine Beaulieu's exact car model, it seems visually closest to a midsize car, meaning it's larger than a Volkswagen Beetle but smaller than a Ford F-150. The average weight of a midsize car is about 3,500 pounds, so between the car and the three people inside of it, the utility pole was doing some pretty heavy lifting.

Luckily, I confirmed with Flynn that neither Beaulineu nor her three children were hurt during the incident.

"As far as my 35-plus years as a firefighter, this is the first time I've ever seen a car get caught up by a wire," he said. "I know the family's doing well—we just met with them a little while ago. They came over to thank us."