14 DAY TRIAL // A 27-year-old in Morro Bay, California, wanted to propose in the most unique possible way, so he decided to climb Morro Rock on Thursday and ask his girlfriend to marry him via FaceTime.
Everything went according to plan for Michael Bank, and he even got a “yes” from his significant other, but what happened next could have easily given his marriage a completely new direction.
On his way back home, Bank decided to take a different and steeper path, so it didn’t take long until he became stranded on a ledge, according to a report by LA Times.
The same iPhone that he used to propose to his girlfriend was used to alert the emergency teams too, so he ended up being saved by a California Highway Patrol helicopter shortly after that.
Not the typical “man saved by helicopter” story
Most stories would end here, but this is not the typical “he proposed, got stranded, then saved by local authorities, and then they lived happily ever after” story.
After being saved with a helicopter and transported to the local police station, he actually ended up in jail. Not because he didn’t have the money to pay for the helicopter, because, yes, he had to pay for the helicopter, but because he was drunk. Well, kind of.
Morro Bay Fire Chief Steve Knuckles says that some witnesses reported that Banks was acting strangely, so everyone thought he got drunk. After all, every man can have a drink after proposing, right? While enjoying his paid ride with the helicopter, he was calm most of the time, but also rather nervous at certain times, which made everyone around him pretty suspicious.
It appears that, in the end, the police arrested them on suspicion of possessing methamphetamine, the drug that most likely brought him the idea of climbing a mountain to propose. He claimed he was on medication for post-traumatic stress disorder instead, so he’s not using any meth.
Either way, he’s expected to get a fine because climbing the mountain is banned after several fatalities that happened in the last year, but it’s not yet clear if Banks has already been cited or not.