Undersheriff lends a hand

Undersheriff Larry Starkey took an unusual call Monday night when he volunteered to help lift a Peabody patient after ambulance employees were having trouble.

Starkey, freshly home from his shift and still in uniform at 11:08 p.m. Monday, heard dispatchers call Peabody police, busy at a trailer fire, to help emergency medical personnel lift a 78-year-old man who had fallen at a Peabody residence.

Police said they were too busy.

Starkey, who lives just a few blocks away, told dispatchers he would go help lift the patient.

“It was a narrow hallway, and they needed help, so I went and did it,” Starkey said.

The patient declined to be taken to a hospital afterward.