Hard to imagine that a missing child story can have a happy ending these days. But this one out of Nebraska turns out even more than happy, it's funny.

A frantic search for a missing toddler in Lincoln ended well and even with a good laugh. A 3-year-old boy, who had slipped out of his home while his mother was in the bathroom, was found happily playing with stuffed animals inside the claw machine at the bowling alley across the street.

An astonished customer notified employees after spotting the boy in the machine. The machine's owner was called and he opened the machine so the uninjured boy could get out.

An employee of Madsen's Bowling Alley and Billiards said,

Everyone was just kind of taking pictures of him and videotaping him and he didn't notice any of us outside the machine. He was just playing with all the stuffed animals.

The owner of the machine says,

The boy must have gotten in through the machine's prize hole. You have to weave your way in and out so he had to work pretty hard to get in there.

The boy was returned home with a stuffed animal from the machine as a souvenir. That's one that he will have to hang onto.

Sources: Radio Online, New York Daily News

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