It was nearing 7 p.m. Saturday, and Adam Kroll and John Minerd, employees of the Crete Ace Hardware store, were getting ready to close for the day.

They were about to lock the doors of the store, on Exchange Street west of Illinois Route 394, when they saw headlights of a vehicle that had driven onto a retention pond.

Moments later, they heard the ice on the pond crack.

“When the ice gave it was crazy loud,” Minerd said.

He made sure someone inside the store called 911 as Kroll, who is training to be a Crete firefighter, ran out to see a truck starting to sink.

“His instincts kicked in and he ran out,” Minerd said.

They said they were able to stand on the ice, estimated to be at least 3 inches thick, and yelled at the driver to open his door or roll down a window.

“At that point water was filling up the truck,” Minerd said.

“Time was ticking,” Kroll said.

The driver began to climb to a back seat of the four-door pickup truck as it began to sink nose first, they said. They estimated the water was probably 6 feet deep, judging by how much of the truck was visible.

“Adam and I decided we had to do something pretty quickly,” Minerd said.

They both had small two-way radios store employees use to communicate with each other. Minerd threw his at a window, hoping the glass would break, but the radio bounced off. On his throw, Kroll was able to smash through a rear passenger side window.

“It’s not easy to break,” Kroll said.

They said at this point the driver was choking as water poured into the truck. Kroll grabbed ahold of a hooded jacket the driver was wearing.

“For a second he wouldn’t come out, he wasn’t moving very well,” Kroll said.

Kroll was able to pull the driver through the window, get him to land, pull off the soaked jacket he was wearing and wrap the driver in his own coat.

Minerd and Kroll said they didn’t go into the water, but that it was coming up and pouring over the ice they were standing on.

Crete police said the driver was traveling east on Exchange and stated his vision was obscured by a vehicle driving west on Exchange with its high beam headlights on.

He turned into the Ace parking lot believing he was driving on the blacktop, when in fact he drove onto the grass and down onto the retention pond, according to Chief Scott Pieritz.

His vehicle drove across the iced-over pond until it broke through and began to sink, the chief said.

When police arrived, the driver was in the back of a Crete Fire Department ambulance receiving medical treatment, according to Pieritz.

He said the driver did not speak English, and an interpreter was needed to relay what happened to investigators.

Although they work at a hardware store where items such as hammers are available, Minerd and Kroll said they didn’t have time to search for something heavier than the radios they were carrying.

Minerd, 62, and Kroll, 25, are both Crete residents. Minerd said he grew up in Michigan, and being on frozen lakes and ice fishing were part of his youth.

Kroll grew up in the southwest suburbs and attended Lincoln-Way West High School in New Lenox.

He said that, growing up, he was always wanting to help others.

“I’m always down to help somebody who needs it,” Kroll said.

He said it was something he never expected to encounter at work.

“I am glad that he is going to be alive and safe,” he said.

Kroll said he has replayed Saturday’s events in his head. He and Minerd said it was probably less than 5 minutes from when they saw the truck go into the pond until the driver was pulled out.

“If we hadn’t been where we were at or at the back of the store, it could have gone differently,” Kroll said.

“It could have been a recovery instead of a rescue operation,” Minerd said.

mnolan@southtownstar .com