Intruder Drops In on Gopher for Long Night

Some construction sites use guard dogs to protect their building materials.

But a guard gopher was on duty at a retail store being built in Topanga Canyon, an intruder found out Monday.

William Faust, 25, was rescued by Los Angeles County firefighters from the clutches of a freshly dug septic tank pit and the jaws of an angry gopher after being trapped 13 hours inside the 25-foot-deep hole, authorities said.

Rescuers said that Faust, of Torrance, told them he spent the night fighting off the gopher after falling into the pit about 6 p.m. Sunday. The plywood-covered hole is one of four dug as part of a septic system leach field at the construction site next to 1861 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.

Sheriff’s Sgt. William Larsen said Faust told deputies he slipped into the hole after he stopped at the construction site and gave one of the plywood sheets “a kick.” Several 4-by-8-foot wooden panels that are weighted down by dirt temporarily cover each of the five-foot-wide holes.

It was not clear what Faust was doing at the site. Larsen said Faust told a fireman who helped rescue him that he fell into the pit while trying to remove some of the plywood, valued at about $10 a sheet. Another rescuer, a construction worker, said Faust had told him the same thing. Faust could not be reached for comment.

Construction worker Bruce Ilves said he was driving past the construction site about 6 a.m. on his way to breakfast when he noticed Faust’s pickup truck parked there with its lights on, door open and motor running. The plywood had fallen back over the hole and was covering Faust.

“I heard this ‘help, help,’ really faint,” said Ilves, 36, of Topanga.

“I’m surprised he didn’t end up getting ripped off,” Ilves said. “His truck was sitting there next to the road all night long with its door open and its motor running.”

The gopher apparently scampered out of the hole and disappeared in the pre-dawn darkness when Ilves left to call rescuers from a nearby home.

According to Larsen, Faust told deputies that the gopher kept him awake by “charging at him” all night long. “He didn’t get bitten, but he said he had to fend it off all night,” Larsen said.

Firefighters, who used ropes and a litter to pull Faust out about 7 a.m., said Faust had a previously broken wrist that may have been re-injured by the fall. He did not require treatment, however.

Developer Jim Coulson, who is building the 3,000-square-foot, $150,000 structure, said Faust signed a statement releasing Coulson from responsibility for the fall. In return, Coulson said, he would not file a complaint with the Sheriff’s Department.

“I figured he probably learned his lesson. As one of the deputies said, a night in that hole was probably worse than a night in the County Jail.” Coulson said trespassers should also beware. “Gophers are all over the place out here,” he said.