Igloo Recalls 4 Cooler Models After Florida Boy Gets Trapped Inside One

A 5-year-old boy from Pompano Beach, Florida, was trapped in a cooler while playing hide-and-seek, prompting a product recall by the cooler manufacturer.

Earlier this month, Nicholas Wanes was playing hide and go seek when he decided to hide inside a large cooler at his home’s back deck. Surveillance video from the house showed the boy had climbed into a 72-quart cooler early evening on March 2. He was inside for a couple minutes and the top of the cooler can be seen slightly open and resting on the latch. However, he then pulled the latch and forced the cooler closed from inside. On realizing he couldn’t get out, he started screaming.

“When it got locked, I was scared. Like, I thought I got locked in there forever. I didn’t notice the lock closes automatically,” Nicholas told the media soon after the incident.

His parents, Robert and Maria Wanes who were nearby heard the screams and rushed to see their son trapped in the cooler. Robert held the cooler manufacturers, Igloo, accountable for the design flaw since there was no way to open the cooler from inside. He said that it shouldn’t be so easy for a child to be able to latch the container from inside.

Nicholas’ mother told the media that they heard an awful, muffled scream and went running out to figure where the scream was coming from. Though the boy was unharmed, the entire family was scared due to the event. “Every thought goes through your mind. What if? What if? What if? What if I didn’t hear him? What if I was out front? What if I was upstairs? What if I was in the shower? I mean, that’s why we want to get this out there.”

The cooler was an Igloo Marine Elite model that allows the owner to latch and lock it from the outside. Nicholas was trapped in the cooler for a very short period but the incident shook up the family and they want to ensure that no one else would have to go through what they did.

When the company, Igloo, was informed of the boy getting trapped, it identified four products with similar locks and voluntarily recalled all four of them. In a statement on its website, Igloo said, “It has been brought to our attention that a child recently, inadvertently trapped himself in one of our products. We are very sorry for the scare this incident must have caused the child and his family, and are very happy no one was injured. It is possible that the stainless steel latch could, inadvertently, close where a person could potentially become locked inside. We are working closely with West Marine to send customers a free latch-replacement kit that you can use to easily and safely switch out the current latch.”

West Marine is a company that operates a chain of boating and fishing retail stores in the U.S.

Igloo issued an apology for the inconvenience and listed the models with the affected locks on its website:

Igloo Marine Elite 72 quart; Item #00049375

Igloo Marine Elite 54 quart; Item #00049374

Igloo Marin Elite 94 quart; Item #00049574

Igloo Marine Elite 110 quart; Item #00034108