For days, officials warned Bears fans to bundle up if they were attending Monday night's game, but some people never listen. And it nearly cost one fan his life.
Jozef Kowalkowski, 22, called police from his cell phone just after 1 a.m., saying, "I am extremely cold." He couldn't remember where he had parked his car and told the operator, "I'm lying near the water."
Officer Femi Odugbesan, first on the scene, found the Bridgeview man outside and alone in front of the Shedd Aquarium. Kowalkowski was wearing a coat, but he had no gloves and no hat.
"He just kept saying he couldn't feel his hands, and he said he was thirsty. He said he felt like his chest was going to explode," Odugbesan said, according to the Sun-Times.
"I had some Coke in my car, and I gave that to him. He was still kind of delirious. I put him in the back of the squad car. He said he was walking around looking for his car. I said, 'You live in Chicago; you should know better,'" said the officer.
"I put him in the back of the squad car and told him he was going to be okay and to just relax. [Chicago Fire Department] Ambulance 41 came and got him."
Kowalkowski was taken to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center. He had frostbite on his left hand and may have suffered from hypothermia as well.
