A hide and sick game that changed everything

In 2021, a mother and her two sons were on vacation in Cancun, Mexico. One night, while they were staying at their resort, all the kids were invited to play in this big game of resort-wide hide and seek, where the hotel staff would count and the kids would hide. One of this woman's sons decided he wanted to play, and after the staff began counting, he took off running. After only a few seconds, he found the perfect hiding spot. It was this little nook tucked away in the darkness right on the edge of the hotel's property. But after he got down in this little space and tucked down and was hiding, he realized he was not alone.

Okay let's get into today's story. On or around June 10th, 2021, Jennifer Buell and her two sons, 12-year-old Charlie and 7-year-old Johnny, touchdown at Cancun International Airport in Cancun, Mexico. The family, who lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was there for a nice long vacation during the kids' summer break, which had started just a few weeks earlier. After getting off the plane and getting their luggage, the Buell family made their way out of the airport and hopped on a shuttle that brought them to their resort. They were staying at Club Med Cancun, which is a very popular all-inclusive family resort that's located right at the tip of the Riviera Maya. The Riviera Maya is just stunningly beautiful. It's this stretch on the western side of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico that's basically all white sand beaches and beautiful clear turquoise water. But Club Med Cancun's fabulous location was not the only reason why families loved going there so much. Club Med, the huge hotel company behind this particular resort, is known for their Gentil Organisateur. They call them G.O.s for short, and basically these are staff members employed by Club Med at all of their locations everywhere in the world whose sole job is to make sure the guests staying at their hotels have a truly unforgettable experience. So these really friendly G.O.s are always walking around these hotels and talking to the guests and pointing them to the different places they can go within the hotel, and they encourage the guests to interact with each other and to participate in resort activities. A stay at a Club Med hotel, whether it's Cancun or anywhere in the world, is known to be very upbeat and highly interactive. So Jennifer and her two sons get off the shuttle at Club Med Cancun, they go inside, they get checked in, they make their way to their room, they drop their bags, and then they head out to explore the hotel. And pretty much right away, there were G.O.s all over the place coming up to welcome them to the hotel and pointing them to the best restaurants, the best places to go swimming, and what activities were coming up that night and what to look forward to that week. And right away, what stood out to the Buell family, specifically Charlie and Johnny, was the kids' club. Teens' club basically, the G.O.s organized really fun games And activities just for the kids, depending on what age they were, and so this was really appealing to Charlie and Johnny to go play with other kids, and it was appealing to Jennifer because this would mean she could go off and actually relax because she would have childcare. So starting that first night and over the next week they were in Cancun, Jennifer made sure they always were around the resort so that the boys could just take off and go hang out with this kids club/teen club whenever they wanted. And so the routine that the Buell family adopted over the course of their vacation was they would get up early, they would go to the white sand beaches right outside of the resort, and then after coming back to the resort, Charlie would almost always cut loose and go hang out for the rest of the day with the kids in the teen club/kids club, and Johnny, he mostly stayed with his mom, but over the course of the day he would leave and do one-off activities with the club. And then at 9:15 PM at night, the trio would always link up on the pool deck and they would make their way in to see one of the shows that the GEOS were putting on, ranging from comedy sketches to circus tricks. And so all in all, the Buell family vacation to Cancun, Mexico was really going as well as it could have been until a simple game of hide and seek changed everything.

On June 18th, roughly one week after the Buell family had arrived in Mexico, the family got up and began their typical vacation routine. They headed to the beach, and then afterwards, Charlie broke off to spend time with the kids at the teen club. Johnny and Jennifer mostly stayed together for the rest of the afternoon. That evening, around 8:30 PM, after all three of the Buells had had dinner, they decided to split up before rejoining at 9:15 to go in and see a show. Johnny wanted to head downstairs and go see a kids-only show, Jennifer wanted to head up to the second level to have chocolate fondue dessert with a friend she had made at the resort, and Charlie wanted to meet up with his friends from the kids club and teens club out on the pool deck where the GEOS were organizing a big game of hide and seek. So, after watching his mother walk upstairs to the fondue restaurant and watching his younger brother head downstairs to the kids-only show, Charlie turned and ran towards the pool deck. When he got there, he immediately linked up with his best friend from the vacation, a 13-year-old named Cyrus.

Very quickly after that, the GEOS who were on the pool deck with all the other kids out there said, "Okay, we're gonna start counting. You guys all hide." So the GEOS walked to the side of this big pool deck, covered their eyes, and began counting. All the kids, Charlie and Cyrus included, scattered to find the best hiding spot. Right away, as Charlie and Cyrus were looking for places to hide, they saw the other kids were taking up all the best hiding spots, and so for a second, they were panicking, thinking they were not going to have a good spot. Then both of the boys looked over to the side of the pool deck and realized there was a perfect hiding spot that nobody had taken. Around the outside of this huge open-air pool deck was a metal fence, only a couple of feet tall and made up of metal bars so you could see right through it. It was basically in place just to denote the edges of the resort property. On one length of this perimeter fence, the south side of this fence, there was a gate built into this fence, and this gate was almost always closed and locked. The only time it was opened was when a GO or another hotel staff member would open it to lead guests out of the resort property to go off and do some excursion. But for some reason, on the night of June 18th, this fence was wide open. On the other side of this fence was just a small rectangular platform that jutted out about 10 feet from the pool deck, the same level as the pool deck. If you were standing on this platform with your back to the pool deck, on your left side would be a very small flight of stairs, just a couple of steps going down.

Charlie and Cyrus looked over and saw this gate was open. They knew there were those stairs kind of tucked down below the platform, and they were thinking if they crouched down on those steps, no one would see them from the pool deck. They would be obscured from view. So Charlie and Cyrus ran over to the open gate, went through, walked down a couple of steps, and kind of tucked themselves down so they could barely look up and over onto the pool deck to see if anyone was coming. But they could tell there was no way anyone was going to see them unless they literally walked through the gate and were looking down the steps at them. Charlie and Cyrus were giggling with excitement because they knew they had found the perfect hiding spot. They were listening as the GEOS were calling Out okay, ready or not, here we come! And after a couple of minutes, they're hearing the sound of the GEOS finding all the other kids all over the pool deck. You know, there were some really good hiding spots, but eventually, all the kids are found except for Charlie and Cyrus. And so Charlie and Cyrus, they start looking at each other, and they're really excited about this, but they know no one's gonna find them. But right before Cyrus and Charlie stood up and revealed themselves, Cyrus happened to notice there was a hose, like a garden hose, that was draped down the steps that they were on, and for some reason, the water was turned on. And so Cyrus grabbed the hose and, as he stood up turning away from Charlie, really, he began spraying the water onto the pool deck, onto the GEOS, and all the kids who didn't know where they were. And so everybody on the pool deck is suddenly laughing and running away from the water. It's totally chaos, and Cyrus thinks it's hysterical. He's still just spraying everybody down. And then at some point, Cyrus stops and turns to see what Charlie's reaction is to this absolute Bedlam that he's created on the pool deck. But when Cyrus turns around, Charlie's not there.

Meanwhile, two other hotel guests who had nothing to do with this game of hide and seek, it was a mother and her adult son, they were having a meal up in the second-floor restaurant that overlooked the pool deck. And as they're sitting there enjoying their meal, they suddenly hear the sound of boys screaming. Now, immediately, they both can tell this is not a play scream. Someone is actually in danger. Someone has hurt. Something's going on here. And they try to look down onto the pool deck where these screams seem to be coming from, but they can't tell. It's dark out there. They can't see what's going on. And so, acting on instinct, the woman and her son just stand up and start running through the restaurant and making their way downstairs. And as they're doing this, the woman's husband actually sees her charging through, and he, along with two other boys that happen to be near him, just start running after them, knowing that whatever's going on is bad, so they have to go help.

And so when these five people get down to the pool deck, they hear the sound of the boys screaming again, and they can tell it's coming from that open gate, that platform area where Charlie and Cyrus had been hiding. And so these five people charged through the still-open gate that goes out onto this platform, and they look down the little flight of stairs, and they see Cyrus. They don't see anybody else on the platform. It's just this one boy, and he looks totally shaken up, totally hysterical, and it's clear he is one of the boys that was screaming. And then, before they could even ask him what was going on, they hear a sound coming from somewhere below the steps, and they all turn, and literally out of the darkness, Charlie just suddenly emerges and he looks up at the adults and just says, in a very calm voice, "Save me, save me."

This normally completely off-limits fenced-off platform that jutted out past the pool deck where the boys were hiding, that was actually a dock that sat over a swampy lagoon. And underneath that dock was a nest of crocodiles. And when Cyrus and Charlie were on that lower step, the crocodiles had noticed them. And when Cyrus had stood up and begun spraying the water onto the pool deck, one of those crocodiles, a A 13-foot monster had come out of the water, turned around, and literally leapt up onto those steps. It bit Charlie by the leg and pulled him into the water. The screams that woman and her son had heard while they were in that restaurant were Cyrus's and Charlie's because initially when Charlie was pulled into the water, he didn't go directly under. So Cyrus had managed to grab onto Charlie's arms and he was trying to pull Charlie out of the crocodile's mouth. The two of them were screaming for help, but by the time that woman and the other four people got down to the platform, Cyrus lost his grip on Charlie and the croc and Charlie went under the water. And so those five people were standing there when the crocodile and Charlie just came back out of the water. And that's when Charlie was saying Save me, save me! He was in the crocodile's mouth, and when these five people saw Charlie and understood what was going on, without any hesitation, the adults leapt into the dark Lagoon Waters that are clearly infested with crocodiles and began beating the crap out of this crocodile. And while this melee is happening in these dark murky Lagoon Waters with crocodiles everywhere, someone had gone into the fondue bar and told Jennifer, "Your son's being attacked by a crocodile!" And she instantly leapt up and just ran across the restaurant, knocking anything over that was in her way. Finally, she got downstairs to the pool deck. She went through that gate out to that platform and she saw her boy. Charlie was laying on his back surrounded by totally frantic and heroic adults. Charlie's leg looked like it had been through a meat grinder, but Charlie was awake, and he was talking to the adults near him. In the time it took Jennifer to run through the restaurant and get down to the pool deck, those adults who had leapt into the murky Lagoon water to fight with this crocodile had literally beaten it so badly that it released Charlie. And according to the people who watched this happen, this crocodile was putting up an unbelievable fight. It was whipping its head side to side, tearing into Charlie's leg. It kept pulling Charlie deeper and deeper into the water, and these adults just didn't stop. They were yanking on this crocodile, punching its eyes, gouging its eyes, and finally, it worked. When Charlie was finally pulled to safety and was laying on the dock, he was in rough shape, and no one knew if he was going to survive or not. But luckily, there just happened to be a Trauma Nurse who was staying at the resort who came outside. She assessed the situation, and she took charge. She stopped the bleeding in his leg, and she stayed with him and kept him calm until paramedics finally arrived. Charlie would be rushed to the hospital where he would immediately undergo several surgeries that would save his life. Also, surgeons were able to miraculously save his leg. Initially, it seemed like he might have to have it amputated. As for Club Med, their response to this incident was enormous. Not only did they pay for all of Charlie's medical bills, but they also invested a lot of money into securing not only that fence and gait that led to the dock where he was attacked but also just generally speaking around the resort to make sure there were no more attacks. Today, Charlie is back in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his family, and considering the horrible trauma he went through, he's remarkably well-adjusted. In fact, in the Halloween that followed this attack, Charlie dressed up as a crocodile. So that's gonna do it.