'HE WENT STRAIGHT IN': Brooklyn sinkhole devours man trying to save girlfriend's SUV

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A sinkhole opened in Brooklyn on Monday morning, swamping an SUV and briefly devouring a man before he escaped the chasm with the help of his girlfriend.

The sinkhole emerged overnight in Gravesend during a water main break at an apartment complex at Bay 37th Street and Cropsey Avenue.

The owner of the vehicle, Vincenza Maligieri, received a knock at her door around 2:30 a.m. from a neighbor, who told her the building's parking lot was flooded and that her Jeep SUV was submerged by water.

Maligieri and her boyfriend ran out to re-park the SUV, but they didn’t realize the sinkhole was beginning to devour the vehicle from below.

“When we came out to move my car, my boyfriend tried and he went straight into the hole,” Maligieri said.

“We didn’t think it was a hole, because the street is fine,” she said. “The street has never been broken or anything like that, so he thought he was walking normal to open my car and pull it out. He had no idea there was a hole underneath.”

“He plunged right into it,” she said.

A photo shows him next to the vehicle in waist-deep water. He was able to crawl out with help from Maligieri and was taken to a hospital.

"There's no one out there, so we did our best, but I got him out," she said. "Him helping himself and me pulling him out."

Maligieri said he wasn't seriously hurt and was already back to work as the building’s superintendent.

“His leg hurts a little bit, but he’s working now, because he’s a super here,” she said. “So hopefully he’s okay for now, only scratched up.”

The SUV remained in the hole at daybreak, as work was underway to fix the water main break.

The Department of Environmental Protection shut off the water and was beginning repairs. Dozens of units were without water during the work.

Crospey Avenue was closed to westbound traffic from Bay 38th Street to 24th Avenue. There were also delays on the B82 line as buses were detoured