TAMPA — Susan Carnes was on her way home Tuesday evening when she took her usual shortcut through the Publix supermarket parking lot on Gandy Boulevard.

But she stopped when she spotted a pair of ducks in a quandary of quacking.

"I saw these mallards walking back and forth erratically," said Carnes, 58, a flight attendant for Delta Airlines. "I rolled down my window and I heard peep-peeping and saw nine baby ducks who had dropped into the storm drain."

Carnes said she contacted friends at Florida Parrot Rescue, who suggested she call police. Tampa Police Officer Cameron Greene arrived in about 10 minutes.

Greene grabbed a crow bar from his patrol car, lifted the grate, climbed down into the concrete cavern, and gathered up the ducklings.

They waddled off together with their parents to a nearby pond.

Carnes captured the rescue mission on her mobile phone and posted videos to her Facebook account, much to the delight of hundreds who had viewed it there by Wednesday afternoon.

Contact Howard Altman at haltman@tampabay.com or (813) 225-3112. Follow @haltman.