My son got stuck in a vending machine!

Adventurous toddler Noah Jeffrey found a novel way to get his hands on a new toy.

Louise Jeffrey always knew her three-year-old son, Noah, was blessed with an inquisitive nature. But the Victorian mum could hardly believe her eyes when she saw her little boy peering out from inside a toy vending machine at their local family restaurant.

So determined was the tot to grab a plaything, he had pushed through the retrieval gate, up the chute where the toys and lollies pop out and into the glass-walled claw machine. And far from keeping all the loot to himself, an unfazed Noah was happily passing the spoils through the chute to excited children outside.

“I never thought a child would be able to fit inside the chute,” Louise, 33, says. “We’ve gone to this restaurant many times because it has a safe playground for the kids to play in.” Taking her eye off her toddler for just a moment, Louise – who also has a son Harrison, 5, and is expecting her and husband Luke’s third child in July – turned back just in time to see Noah completing his climb.

“All the other kids gathered around the machine and made requests to Noah of which toys they wanted, so he was throwing them out,” she recalls. But with no key to the machine on site, and Louise fearing the heat and limited oxygen inside could take a dangerous toll on her son, the situation was no laughing matter.