LAUDERHILL, FLA. (WSVN) - Police have released a good Samaritan’s frantic call for help alerting them about a little girl who got stuck in a lake near her Lauderhill home.
The good Samaritan told the 911 dispatcher that he’d spotted a small child running toward a lake, all alone in the middle of the night, early Thursday morning.
“I was driving; it’s a little kid, like maybe 3 years old, running in the street. He’s just running from me; I’m following him so nothing happens to him,” said the caller. “I was driving, and I said, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m tripping, but I either see a ghost or a little kid.”
Lauderhill Police officers responded to the scene along South Falls Circle Drive at around 1 a.m.
“OK, he’s running over toward the lake, and I don’t see him no more,” said the good Samaritan. “You see that over there? Right over there. You got to get out and go follow him.”
Once officers arrived, they found the 3-year-old girl who was up to her waist in cold water.
Without missing a beat, Lauderhill Police Sgt. Joseph Nistor jumped into the water and pulling the girl out, but he became stuck in mud himself.
Nistor then handed the child off to his partner.
“So we got her,” one officer said in body camera video.
The bodycam video shows an officer pulling Nistor our of the muddy water.
“Give me your hand, Sarge. One, two, I’m going to throw you, all right? Three!” said the officer.
Back on dry land, the officers checked on the little girl.
“What’s your name?” an officer is heard asking the 3-year-old.
Not long after, her mother showed up and told officers that her daughter had wandered off. It was a scary situation that could have ended much worse.
Police said the girl’s parents drove her to the hospital as a precaution.
Lauderhill Police Chief Constance Stanley urged parents to use this scary situation as a chance to teach their children about water safety and to keep their children supervised whenever they’re near a body of water.
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