A 17-year-old California boy who was allegedly trying to steal a can of soda from a vending machine got his arm stuck in the device.

A passerby who saw the teenager with his arm stuck inside the machine, which was located outside the 24th Street trolley station in National City, called authorities at about 5 a.m. While first responders worked to free the unidentified boy, he sat shame-faced next to his skateboard and in full view of anyone who cared to look.

He was not named, but is reportedly a student at Sweetwater High School in National City.

The operation took about an hour, according to ABC News San Diego TV affiliate KGTV, which reported that firefighters initially tried to open the vending machine with axes, crowbars and an air chisel.

When that failed, they used a rotary saw to cut the lock on the door of the machine and freed the boy's arm.

"Initially, we thought if we could get a hold of somebody to come out that had a key that we would be able to open up the door and access the machine and do very little damage, but nobody had the key," Michael LaFreniere of the National City Fire Department told KGTV.

The boy's arm was scraped, but he was otherwise unharmed. After he was checked by medics in a waiting ambulance, he was taken into police custody.

A message left for National City police late Sunday night seeking information on any charges was not returned to ABCNews.com.