A quick-thinking Montana teen used his rodeo lasso — and his faith in God — to miraculously corral a drowning victim in the Yellowstone River, according to reports and authorities.
Jory Thomas, 14, was camping with his family near Greycliff when he heard someone crying for help across the river on July 5, KTVQ reported.
“We all heard, ‘Help, help,’” Thomas told the outlet.
“There’s two or three people floating down the river, one hanging on to the cooler, and he wasn’t saying anything.”
Thomas, armed with a lariat, swung into action and quickly discovered that a floating raft and a paddleboard had struck a bridge pillar — catapulting four people into the water, the outlet reported.
Everyone made it to shore, however, except for one man who was drifting downstream while clinging to a cooler.
“This current was pretty fast then, and he was moving pretty quickly,” Thomas said.
“Only thing I could focus on was helping him get out of the water because I didn’t want to see anyone go in front of me.”
The teen leapt to the rescue, running through a waist-deep side channel and sprinting along the river bank to reach the man as he drifted away.
He then grabbed his 12-foot lariat and successfully swung it around the drowning man on his first try.
“First instinct I thought was try and rope him and drag him out before he gets too far down the river,” he said. “Luckily, I caught him first try.”
Thomas managed to yank him ashore until first responders showed up, officials said.
“I felt pretty good afterwards that I knew he was okay and was out of the water,” the heroic teen said.
“God was basically putting me in the place of all this,” he said. “God was just telling me all of this at the time and saying, ‘Go get him, you got it, and I believe in you.’”
Thomas has been practicing lassoing for the last year, mainly on a cattle head he built in his backyard on his family’s ranch in Big Timber, The Washington Post reported.
For his “heroic” rescue, the boy was awarded a Certificate of Achievement by the Sweet Grass County Sheriff’s Office, the department announced in a Facebook post.
“Jory is a strong believer of if somebody needs help, you’re going to do everything you can,” his mother, Robin Thomas, told the outlet.
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