The two-year-old boy was peddling towards them on a tiny bike on the highway, heading straight into oncoming traffic — the couple immediately slammed on their brakes and stopped the car. What was this little kid doing out here all alone?
You never know what you’re going to see when driving on the Boulder highway outside of Las Vegas.
It’s a city where anything is possible. However, once you get outside of it, it’s an open landscape with a few suburbs in the immediate area, then mostly desert until you hit the Hoover Dam.
That’s where the man and woman were driving when they first spotted the little cyclist.
At first, the couple couldn’t believe what they were seeing, but it quickly became clear that it wasn’t just a mirage.
The shocking video was shown on Fox5 Las Vegas, where they dove into the story further.
“Is that a little kid?” the husband exclaimed. “Turn your flashers on!”
He repeated the words “turn your flashers on” several times as if trying to convince himself he was really seeing it.
Coming the opposite direction along the side of the highway was a wobbly toddler on a bike.
The kid could barely walk, but there he was on a bike, wobbling along, making very slow progress. Where was he going and what was he doing? The couple aimed to find out.
The woman pulled over to the side of the road with her flashers on and attempted to block the traffic coming from behind them.
She wanted to make absolutely sure that no one was going to come speeding by them and hit the poor kid.
The man jumped out of the car, sprinted over, and immediately scooped the toddler up into his arms, bike and everything.
Several other cars started to slow down as well to see what all the commotion was about.
That’s when the couple spotted the housing development on the other side of the highway.
That had to be where the kid came from.
It turns out, the child had biked out of his neighborhood and right through an open gate.
He proceeded to cross the two-lane highway to the opposite side of it and start riding along, straight towards the traffic.
The police were quickly contacted, but in the meantime, the couple ran door to door in the neighborhood with the two-year-old, trying to track down his parents. Matthew Eskridge, a resident who lives in the area, came out of his house as well to try and assist with the situation.
“He asked me, ‘do I know who this kid belongs to?’ I’m like, are you serious?” Eskridge told FOX5.
Eskridge stepped outside and started looking around.
“As I came out the mom was running down the street and she ran out the gate cause she seen the cars parked on the side of the road,” said Eskridge.
The mom had feared the worst when she saw the cars stopped on the highway.
She began frantically looking for her son in a total panic and, actually, ran right by him. Soon, though, she was guided in the right direction and once again reunited with her little baby. It was a close call, but the crisis was averted!
Eskridge let out a sigh of relief when he saw the mother and son reunited as well.
The mother explained that she had accidentally let her son get out of her sight.
“I’m like, that’s kind of far for this little boy to be going all the way down Boulder Highway!” said Eskridge. “…I hear people racing down this road all the time.”
Eskridge also mentioned that the gate to the neighborhood doesn’t always stay closed. It doesn’t latch properly, so it’s easy to see how something like this could happen. The neighborhood appears like it is its own little gated community, however, with the highway so close by, there is always a risk.
Kids don’t always realize the potential dangers, especially at that age. However, in the end, everyone was just glad that the boy was safe!
Watch the full video of the toddler biking alone on the highway below.
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