It's many peoples' worst nightmare: Getting your car stuck in the snow with no heat.

That's exactly what happened to one man on Thursday.

"At some point, it became obvious that he was near us but camouflaged. We just couldn't see him and it was a needle-in-a-haystack-type scenario," said New York State trooper Jason Cawley.

Kevin Kresen, 58, was driving in Owego when the serpentine belt on his car broke. He went into a ditch, and with rapidly falling snow and passing plows, his car was quickly covered. Kresen made repeated calls to 911, but cell service was bad.

"911 from Tioga County advised me that they had one motorist that they didn't have a good location on, and that he didn't have any heat," said Cawley.

Trooper Cawley had a difficult time finding the car in the feet of snow. He knew the approximate area where the driver was stranded. With mailboxes covered, it was tough to see what part of the street he was on.

"So I found a part of the bank that was maybe 6 inches different than the rest of the bank. I thought it was a row of mailboxes. So to check my location, I started digging in there, and I was surprised when I ran into the side window of a car," said Cawley.

The driver had been trapped for 10 hours.

"I'm not a doctor, but had he been left there for maybe an hour or two more, I don't believe he would have survived," said Cawley.

He was treated for hypothermia and frostbite at Lourdes Hospital.

"Every young man and young woman comes on this job hoping to be able to do something and make a change or save somebody, all those things police officers want to do when they come on. And it is, after 22 years of doing this, it's very rewarding," said Cawley.