When Cory Cannon was driving through Eatontown, New Jersey recently, he saw what he thought was a kid’s toy lying in the middle of the street.
It looked like an abandoned baby doll or a stuffed animal.
However, as he continued driving closer, the toy began moving! Cannon couldn’t believe his eyes. What was going on?
As he approached the scene in the middle of the road, he quickly realized what was actually happening.
It wasn’t a toy at all. Crawling next to the yellow divider line in the center of a busy road was a baby girl that looked to be just a few months old!
Cannon explained more about what he witnessed in an interview with CBS New York.
“I wasn’t actually sure what it was or what was going on, but once I saw the baby move, just, my heart stopped, and I knew I had to do something,” said Cannon. “Hopefully I did the right thing.”
It all happened so fast.
Cannon immediately hit the brakes and blocked the road with his truck. Then he sprang into action and began searching for the baby’s parents.
He stopped traffic coming from each direction as he ran out of his truck and scooped up the little girl into his arms.
“I yelled for the neighbors that I saw that were in their yard playing with their children. Someone actually came over, picked the child up, said it wasn’t her child,” explained Cannon.
The neighbors looked the baby up and down, then said it wasn’t theirs. How far did this baby crawl to get to the middle of the road?
Realizing that the parents had to be close by somewhere, Cannon continued his search next door.
“We walked her over to the adjacent house, knocked on the door, the door was wide open. A toddler came and answered the door initially,” said Cannon.
It turns out, this is where the baby had crawled from. It had started crawling, wandered through the front door, and ultimately, ended up blocking traffic on the main road.
“Then the adult came.”
Soon, the dad was tracked down. He was somewhere else in the home at the time, and clearly, hadn’t been supervising his kids that day.
“We explained to him what was going on and gave him his daughter back. Hopefully, it doesn’t happen again,” said Cannon.
A baby crawling in the middle of the road is pretty much the last thing anyone would expect to see.
However, that’s exactly what happened to Cannon while he was driving. The sight was especially harrowing for him since he has a four-month-old of his own at home. He couldn’t believe that another parent would be so irresponsible.
“It was like a shock to the system. You have to be more aware of your surroundings and be able to pay a little more attention to your children. That’s basically what it comes down to,” said Cannon.
Originally, Cannon shared the images of the baby crawling across the street in a viral Facebook post. The post has since been taken down, but CBS New York also covered the story in further detail. The images got the attention of the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency who is now investigating the case as well.
While this time around, no one was hurt, the situation could have easily gone very differently. Thanks to Cannon’s watchful eye and quick actions, a young life was saved that day.
Watch the full video showing the baby crawling across the street below.
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