‘A bad experience’: Catonsville man says it could have been worse after 23 hours in 30-foot well

In a way, Steve Johnson is glad that he was the one who ended up falling into the 30-foot well that was hidden in his backyard.

For one, it could have been the father and son duo who cut the lawn at the Catonsville home that Johson purchased in June, he said. And when Johnson, 39, fell in on Tuesday , he avoided any serious injuries.

"It could have gone a lot worse, right?" he said Friday, after returning home from the hospital.

But spending roughly 23 hours underground certainly was "a bad experience" that Johnson would not like for others to go through.

Johnson, a government contractor who works on Fort Meade, recalled tumbling down the hole in his yard at around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. He had been checking on trees and shrubs that had grown at his new home on the 2100 block of Old Frederick Road while he was away in his former home state of Georgia, where he checked on his other property and his friends in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

He would spend about 23 hours in the well until he was rescued by firefighters the next afternoon, after getting the attention of a neighbor who had been walking with his son.

Johnson didn't have a watch or a phone on him, but he had some space to move around — the bottom of the well was about six feet in diameter. Johnson spent the first few hours underground trying to yell for somebody's attention.

The shape of the well, though, was not very conducive to projecting sound outside, he said. So, he decided to climb.

The shape of the well wasn't very conducive to that, either.

"I climbed a lot," he said, laughing. Two or three times, he made it to the top of a 20-foot high pile of cinder blocks, but was obstructed by about five feet of dirt. He tried using some broken sticks to dig out the dirt, but fell.

He stopped trying to escape after his body gave out due to the awkward positioning.

"I was like, 'Alright, I'm just gonna chill for a little bit,'" he said.

Johnson laid down for about an hour before hearing his neighbor, Matt Straffin, and Straffin's son. He couldn't see them but got their attention. Johnson's neighbors grabbed him some waters and called the firefighters, who pulled him out.

He called his neighbors "literal lifesavers," noting the firefighters and paramedics were professional and got him where he needed to go quickly. The hospital staff at Shock Trauma was great, too, he said.

Jonhson came out with a dislocated shoulder that was fractured, as well as a "couple fractures on my lumbar." He returned home from the hospital Thursday night and was still recuperating Friday.

"All things considered, I'm doing quite well, just bumps and bruises and aches and pains," Johnson said. He may consider legal action to recoup some of the medical expenses and missed work — it's too early to tell. He certainly didn't foresee the well being there or caving in.

"I don't know if I've stepped in the area before. I assume I have and I haven't fallen through," he said. "I don't know how you expect that."