An electrician who spent more than six hours trapped inside a 130-foot-tall gas station sign in Wilmington, Illinois, recounted his terrifying experience and the goodbye messages he recorded for his family. AJ Gow was working on the sign on July 23 when his lift malfunctioned, leaving him stranded.
"In the moment, it was getting hairy. I mean I was getting — I was genuinely getting scared, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. And yeah, I was freaking out," Gow told ABC 7 Chicago. He described the messages he recorded as "final words" for his wife and children in case he did not survive the ordeal.
Gow, who services signs, said the job began as routine. However, on a hot day with little air circulation, he sent his co-worker down for water and a fan. When the co-worker returned, the lift had malfunctioned and could not bring him back up.
After about four hours, Gow began to feel unwell due to the lack of water and the confined space. He instructed his co-worker to call for emergency medical services and to get him down by any means necessary. Fire crews responded, but their ladders were too short to reach him. Authorities eventually secured a different lift from a job site 17 miles away.
As the replacement lift approached, Gow flashed a thumbs-up to a news helicopter, a moment that quickly gained traction online. He later shared on social media that he was uninjured but suffered from severe dehydration, requiring hospitalization. Gow has since returned to work, expressing gratitude for surviving the incident and vowing to remain inside his lift bucket during future jobs.