Maria Pestrikoff Falls Off Cliff While Texting, Smoking Cigarette In Alaska

Texting and driving is bad. Texting and walking is worse, if you live at the edge of a 60-foot cliff.

Maria Pestrikoff, of Kodiak, Alaska, was walking to the edge of a cliff near her home on Sept. 17 to discard a cigarette butt -- but she walked too far. She slipped on the grass and plummeted, according to the Associated Press.

"She was in the rocks between the boulders and she was calling for help," her friend Anthony Burke told the Kodiak Daily Mirror [paywall]. "She was screaming in agony."

Rescue workers swooped in to rescue Pestrikoff with ropes, and firefighters rappelled and used ladders to get down to her location. They had to move quickly, because Pestrikoff was injured and the tide below was creeping in toward her, the New York Daily News reported.

She was stabilized, put in a stretcher and lifted up the cliff. She sustained several injuries, but was in stable condition after the rescue.

"The tide was right up to her toes by the time they were able to get her out," Burke said.