MY SELFIE NIGHTMARE
Don’t snapp them,, kids!
One of the teens who plunged through an icy lake in Central Park while posing for a group photo has a message for kids like him: Your life is not worth a selfie.
“This was a scary moment where I learned a lot from,” said Messiah Garcia, 13, who was one of seven East Harlem boys who had to be rescued on Feb. 20 after trying to take a snapshot on The Pond.
“I would like to tell the other people,” he added in a written message. “DONT RISK YOUR LIFE FOR SOMETHING STUPID. If I would have died, it would [have] been all for a selfie.”
Garcia admitted he was traumatized for days after his brush with death.
“I had to sleep with my moms there for a whole week after what happened,” he told The Post.
And when Garcia learned that two other boys — ages 15 and 13 — attempted a similar stunt at The Pond a few weeks after his own selfie misadventure, he was terrified all over again.
“After I heard about that one, my nightmares came back,” he said. “I have dreams where I’m being held under and I can’t breathe.”
Garcia said the trouble that led to the dangerous water rescue began in part because of how much he and his friends had weakened the ice by beating on it with heavy objects, including chains and tree branches, before posing for the selfie.
He said that as he and his pals — all between the ages 13 and 15 — started taking the shot, they knew something was wrong.
“We took about four selfies and the ice cracked and we fell through the ice,” he said of the terrifying moment, which was caught on video by passers-by.
“As soon as we fell, all of us went straight to panic mode and started to pull each other down to keep our mouths above the water,” he recalled.
“They were grabbing my bookbag,” he said. “I saw a broke piece of ice away from my friends and I paddled over there and waited on the ice waiting for [a friend] to come get me.”
Lamar Gibson, another teen who had to be rescued along with Garcia, said he was especially surprised when he heard the news that two other teens from his neighborhood tried to take a selfie on The Pond on March 18, and also fell through the thin ice.
Cops say those two boys managed to get themselves out of the water, and were found freezing and shivering — but otherwise unharmed — near the edge of the park on East 60th Street.
Gibson said he knows what motivated them to pull their stunt.
“They wanted to go on the ice and take a picture for Facebook because if you get a lot of likes on a picture, you could be famous,” he said.
A study published by Carnegie Mellon University said at least 127 people have died taking selfies since 2014.
Both Garcia and Gibson are in the eighth grade at East Side Middle School.
Gibson said that the day after the accident, their teachers gave them a scolding.
“Our math teacher, she was mad. She told us to be cautious,” said Gibson. “We’re kids, we’re stupid, but we can learn.”