Every parent’s worst nightmare is waking up in the morning to find their child is not in bed.
Or waking up to a phone call from the police that their child was found wandering the streets.
For one Grand Rapids mother, this was the case.
She had tucked her 3-year-old daughter into bed the night before and then she herself went to sleep.
It was around 3 in the morning when the woman’s phone started to ring and she groggily answered.
The grogginess would surely have left the woman as soon as she heard who was on the other end.
One can only imagine the shock she would have felt at hearing the police on the other end of the line.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough, what they had to tell her must have had her blood running cold.
Hearing that her 3-year-old daughter had been found in a back alley must have shaken the woman to her core.
Luckily for everyone involved though, a good Samaritan found her and immediately called the police.
Gabe Botello is a pizza delivery man and father of 7, who noticed the young girl one night while making his deliveries.
It was about 3 in the morning when Gabe drove by the sight of a young girl wandering around an empty parking lot.
He didn’t quite believe his eyes at first and went on to quickly deliver the pizza before driving back to the spot where he had seen the girl.
She wasn’t there anymore, but a feeling overtook the man of needing to find out if the girl was ok, so he began driving around the neighborhood looking for her.
Eventually, he found the girl in a back alley across from the parking
lot where he had originally spotted her.
The child was curled up in a ball, squeezed between 2 concrete walls, trying to keep herself out of the cold.
Gabe scooped her up and immediately brought her into his car’s warmth.
The girl was wearing only a diaper, t-shirt, and socks so he wrapped her up in a sweatshirt and rubbed her back to warm her up.
He gave the girl some water and she quickly started to fall asleep, exhausted from her ordeal.
Gabe called the police who came out to retrieve the girl and find out what had happened to her and where she belonged.
That was when her mother was woken up by the nightmarish phone call.
She quickly made her way to the police station to find her daughter and answer questions about what had happened.
After speaking with her and investigating the situation a little more, the police concluded that there was no one at fault.
The little girl had woken up in the night and decided to go for a wander, she got lost and was luckily rescued by Gabe.
As a father of 7 children, Gabe knew he needed to take action and help the little girl.
He says that he would hope someone would do the same if one of his own children had gotten themselves lost in the big wide world.
Gabe told FOX 17:
“I’m just glad she made it home – I’m glad she’s okay.”
Check out the Facebook video below and meet the man who saved the little girl’s life!
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WATCH | A toddler is back home after a Grand Rapids man — and father — found her wandering on the city’s southwest side early Sunday morning.
He says he hopes someone would have done the same for one of his kids FOX 17
Posted by Marisa Oberle FOX17 on Sunday, March 12, 2023
