Bus driver rescues nonverbal suburban Chicago teen out underdressed in subzero temperatures
A Wheeling, Illinois bus driver is being called a hero after he spotted a teenager with disabilities walking around in dangerous cold temperatures wearing only a shirt.
A unique police database quickly identified the teen and reunited him with his family.
On Tuesday morning in Wheeling, temperatures were well below zero — and was something very wrong at the Briggs home.
"The front door was unlocked — that's very unusual — and my son's door was open," said Trey Briggs. "That only means one thing — it means that he's gone."
Briggs said she immediately knew her 14-year-old son, Urijah, was missing.
"It was negative 5. He had no shoes on. He was walking through snow and ice — no pants on either, and no coat on," Briggs said. "He doesn't know how to cross the street."
Adding to the urgency of Urijah's disappearance, he is nonverbal.
Freddy Leon, a bus driver with First Student, was on his regular route when he spotted the undressed teen and let him warm up until police arrived.
"He stopped. He put him on the bus. He gave him time to warm up, said Briggs, "and I think he saved my son's feet, because he's stepping directly in ice; directly in snow. His hands have blisters."
Local police came afterward.
"The true hero is the bus driver," said Wheeling police Sgt. Richard Giltner. "So we got there, and we quickly realized communication was going to be a barrier."
Giltner said police were able to identify Urijah quickly and get in touch with his family because of the department's Return Home Safe program — a database that gives Wheeling officers identifying information on special needs and nonverbal residents. Those enrolled are given colored bracelets.
"This is our really first true success story," Giltner said.
Giltner created the program in 2022, and for him, Urijah's safe return is personal.
"I have an 8-year-old son who has cerebral palsy, so he is nonverbal," Giltner said, "and I was sitting at home one night with my wife, and we were about what would happen if something; if there was an emergency in our home."
Bus driver Leon does not want any notoriety for his compassion. But his boss at First Student said Leon went above and beyond.
"He understands that what he did was a good thing, but he just said that's what people do," said First Student location manager Curt Collins, "and I told him: 'Freddy, that's the issue. That's not what people do.'"
Briggs also credited the bus driver with going above and beyond.
"This man put him on the bus and waited," she said. "That's — you don't really find a lot of humans like that."
Briggs said she has not had the opportunity to talk with Leon yet. But she said she wants to thank him when she gets the chance.
