Limo Driver Rescues Dog From Middle Of Traffic On Brooklyn Bridge
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It was a recipe for disaster when a lost dog was seen wandering around on the Brooklyn Bridge, until one brave limousine driver stepped in.
CBS2's Ali Bauman spoke Sunday with the unexpected hero who saved the day.
It was a typical ride into Manhattan on the Brooklyn Bridge for limo driver Garrick Quinones when he spotted a not-so-typical hitchhiker earlier this month.
"A small red-haired dog just kind of limping really quick," was how Quinones described it.
The little dog was quivering on the side of the road, and Quinones, a toy sculpting hobbyist, was touched. To him, the lost pup looked all too familiar.
"Toto you know, needs, you know, basically needs some help in a way," Quinones said.
But "Toto" wasn't in Kansas anymore. He was in the middle of traffic, and he didn't even have a tag.
"Please taxi driver, don't run me over," Quinones imagined him saying.
Dodging the speed of cars, Quinones knelt down on the bridge and tried luring the dog toward him. But he was just out of reach, so the driver channeled his Boy Scouting days and tied a slip knot on his phone charger to make a leash.
"I opened it up a little and you know, it was just like underneath and basically putting it, you know, over its head," Quinones said. "He was backing up a little and then we were going back and forth."
Quinones said the rescue was just animal instinct, and he barely thought of his own safety until he was back in the car.
"I was thinking, 'Garrick was this the right thing to do?' and you know, one side though, I said, it always comes out, though. 'Yeah, what the heck.'"
Quinones dropped the pup off at the 19th Police Precinct. Police there told CBS2's Bauman the dog had a tracking chip inside, and the owner later picked him up.
"I know that that was somebody else's, you know loved one; family member, and so, you know, that was the most important thing," he said.
And as this Toto learned, there is indeed no place like home.
