In a heart-stopping moment, 3-year-old Timothy Addo found himself dangling from a fire escape after sneaking out of an open window while his babysitter was occupied. Thankfully, two quick-thinking men happened to be passing by and managed to catch the toddler just in time.
Eyewitnesses recount the harrowing incident, with neighbor Migdalia Melendez explaining, “The second that this happened, she just went to the bathroom for a minute. It happened just like that.”
A neighbor alerted the men on the street before the child slipped and plummeted four stories into their waiting arms. Pedro Navarez, one of the heroes, recalls his frantic screams, “Come back, come back, Julio, I cannot do this by myself.” He continues, “As I’m calling him back, I look up again, the kid’s falling down, so he ran right there. We’re both waiting to catch him, so he hit the branch, so he went to Julio’s side.”
Julio Gonzalez, the other rescuer, describes the intense moment, saying, “As he was coming down, I noticed he was a pretty big kid, a pretty big kid. It’s so fortunate that he was standing right next to me because actually he bounced right off of me – I couldn’t get a good grip – and he grabbed him.”
After the frightening ordeal, the toddler was taken to the hospital but happily, he only suffered minor cuts and bruises.
Navarez and Gonzalez are being hailed as heroes by their community. Neighbor Luis Gonzalez expresses gratitude, saying, “This is the year 2007, and you gotta thank God and all our miracle angels that these guys were around at the time that that little angel needed him.”
It is worth noting that city law requires apartments with children under the age of ten to have window guards. However, an exception is made for windows that lead to a fire escape. Nonetheless, the law emphasizes that children should not be allowed on fire escapes unless there is an emergency evacuation.
As of now, it remains unclear whether the babysitter will face any charges in connection with the incident.
SOURCE:NY1
