Cops use leash to rescue man from icy Lake Michigan after he saved his dog, video shows

A man was walking his newly-adopted dog in a Chicago park for the first time when Pika — a 9-month-old American Eskimo mix — started running toward Lake Michigan.

Pika was “very excited” and headed toward an icy ridge that formed near the lake, the dog’s owner wrote in a letter published by the Chicago Police Department. The man wished to remain anonymous.

“I saw him disappear over the ridge,” the man wrote. “I ran up and looked down six feet to see him paddling in freezing cold water.”

The man knew he didn’t have much time to save 19-pound Pika, so he jumped into the icy lake to rescue his pup.

While in the icy water, the man said he could see that the ice walls rose about 2-feet above his head. He and Pika were trapped.

After finding a spot where the ice wall was lower, the man lifted Pika above him and onto the icy land, according to the letter.

Pika was saved, but the man could not climb out. The ice walls were too smooth.

The man used his “flipper-like” hands to grab his water-proof phone from his pocket and call 911, but another woman had already called over some nearby officers, the letter states.

Those Chicago police officers ran over to the man, and this part of the rescue was recorded by body cameras.

“He started yelling, ‘help me, help me,’” Officer Miguel Del Toro said, according to WGN9. “We ended up crawling on our knees over the ice ridge to get to him.”

Chicago Police Sgt. Alex Silva estimated the water was just above freezing, according to the Chicago-Sun Times.

“At that temperature, you can only last so long,” Silva said, according to the newspaper. “I knew time was of the essence.”

The officers borrowed a green leash from a woman who was nearby and threw it toward the man, WGN9 reported.

“Just hold onto it,” an officer is heard saying in the video.

The man got a hold of the dog leash, and an officer grabbed his hand, the video shows. The Chicago officer then pulled the man onto the ice.

“You’re good, you’re good,” the officers continued to tell the man. “Take a breath ... relax.”

The officers led the man to a patrol car, where he got into the front seat. An officer then placed Pika, wrapped up in a blanket, on his lap.

“Pika and I are both fully recovered and in debt to our gracious and heroic first responders,” the man wrote in the letter.