A DoorDash delivery driver spotted and rescued a shivering toddler wandering alone on Detroit's 8 Mile Road wearing only a diaper and socks on Sunday afternoon as temperature plunged to sub-40 degrees. Robert Jackson III was working a shift with the delivery service DoorDash when he spotted the toddler walking in the area around 11 am on 8 Mile Road, half a block from John R. Street.
Seeing the child wandering Jackson immediately stopped his vehicle and took him inside and wrapped him up in his coat and put him in his car to warm up, according to FOX 2 Detroit. The child was alter handed over to the police and was taken to a nearby hospital to be checked out.
Good Samaritan
Jackson initially tried to warm up the child as the temperature was around 38 degrees, with a wind chill of 29. He then stopped another passing driver and asked them to call 911. The other motorist and Jackson remained with the child while they waited for police to arrive.
"He was standing in the middle of 8 Mile like this," Jackson said. "He was shaking, his hands and his lips were purple and his fingers were purple." After warming up, the child appeared to be in good spirits, Jackson said.
The child was too young to know where he lived and was unable to give Jackson or the other driver any information. "A baby - yeah man I know. You can't ask him who is mommy is," said Jackson who has more than a dozen of grandchildren of his own. "He can't talk. Look, he has no shoes."
Reunited with Family
Later, police arrived and took the child to a hospital for treatment after which the toddler was discharged. Detroit cops went on a hunt and later identified the child and found that he had just walked outside his family home. Investigators say a 16-year-old sibling was supposed to be babysitting him at their residence less than a block away but the child somehow stepped outside the home and started wandering on the street.
Jackson is glad he was there to help out the child reunite with his family. "It feels good that I was there - I don't know how to explain it," he said.
A spokesperson for the Detroit Police told DailyMail.com that the child's mother had gone to the store that morning and the elder sibling was asked to keep a watch on the toddler. That said it is not known how long the child had been outside trembling in the cold and if the mother and the elder sibling tried to know the whereabouts of the toddler.
Also, not much is known if anyone else saw the child or was Jackson the only person. However, Detroit police have thanked Jackson for help.
Police are investigating the incident, but have said that it appears the child simply walked out of the house unnoticed and no charges are expected to be filed against the parents or the elder sibling.
