'I'll bring you to your mama': Alert bus drivers caught on camera rescuing abducted toddler from roadside
KENTWOOD, MICHIGAN: Two Michigan school bus drivers were captured on video saving a toddler who was abducted in a carjacking episode last week. The parents' vehicle, with the toddler inside, was reportedly stolen as they stepped out of it to help an older child onto a school bus.
In the recent video released by the Kelloggsville Public School, a frantic father was seen rushing up to a school bus. “Call the police!” the man tells the driver, with the 2-year-old’s sobbing mother beside him. “Somebody steal the car. There's a baby inside!”
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The bus driver for the Grand Rapids area, Dave Skinner, called 911 and also alerted his team through the radio. "They screamed at me that someone had stolen their car with their baby in it," Skinner told NBC News.
A fellow bus driver, Sue Figueroa, was paying attention. She had noticed a young child along the side of a road and quickly turned her bus around.
“I just saw … a little baby around the corner standing with a blanket on," Figueroa said in surveillance video from her school bus. She is heard saying, "Oh sweet baby," on the bus camera. "I'll bring you to your mama," she says as she picks up the boy and carefully places him in the front seat of the bus.
Later, Figueroa approaches the woman and calls out, "Ma'am, is this your baby?" Handing the child over, the driver assures, "He’s okay, He’s okay, He’s okay."
"I was crying all day. It was very emotional. I was very relieved," Figueroa told NBC.
"It was probably the longest four to six minutes (of the mom’s) life," said Kristin Nickelson, the school district’s director of transportation. "This could have been worse. ... That mom was so scared, and I just can’t imagine what it would have been like not knowing where your baby was." She called Skinner and Figueroa heroes for their quick actions that day.
In a statement to ABC News, Kelloggsville Public School's Superintendent James Alston said, “Sue Figeroa, David Skinner and Kristin Nickelson all did a great job getting this 2-year-old back with his parents. Sue and David were the drivers involved and Kristin is the director of transportation and helped coordinate their efforts.”
Police later found the stolen car in Grand Rapids. However, the suspect behind the carjacking is still on the loose. The police are asking the general public for help in their search for the perp.