A daring rescue operation on Lake Shore Drive saved the lives of a mother duck and her five ducklings Tuesday night.



All it took was the coordinated efforts of some Good Samaritans, police and firefighters and Chicago Streets and Sanitation.



It all started about 7:30 p.m. when Jamie Holbrook was leaving work and was going to her car on the fifth floor of a Streeterville parking garage when she spotted the duck family there.



"It took three hours, (but) I led her out of the garage," with her ducklings following in tow, Holbrook said. She left them to a small park area near East Pearson Street, where she thought they would be safe.



She returned to the garage, got her car but when she got onto Lake Shore Drive she saw the ducks trying to cross the roadway with Good Samaritan Joseph Daley stopping traffic and guiding cars around the ducks.



Holbrook stopped and scooped up some of the ducklings in a large plastic container.



But two of the ducklings couldn't be caught before they fell through the grate of a storm drain.



"One got out," Daley said, but the other had fallen too far into the basin.



As police were protecting the rescuers from traffic, firefighters attempted to pry the grate off with metal stakes. When that effort proved unsuccessful, a Streets and San truck attached a chain to the grate and pulled it off.



Another Good Samaritan reached down and scooped out the trapped duckling in his hat.



Through it all, the mother duck was waiting patiently by, said Holbrook, who was trying to contact a bird rescue organization to take care of the family.







