What's She Doing Up There? Quick Thinking New Yorker Saves Baby From Brooklyn Awning
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A quick thinking New Yorker saved a baby who was crawling on a store awning in Bensonhurst on Friday afternoon.
Incredibly, the 18-month-old girl, who climbed out of her parents' window two stories up, landed on the structure outside of a computer store, CBS 2's Derricke Dennis reported.
The toddler apparently squeezed past an air-conditioning unit before crawling out of the window. A pharmacy worker across 18th Avenue noticed the baby's activity and jumped into action.
"I basically started screaming, 'There's a baby on the roof! Baby on the roof!' and me and my co-worker ran across the street and we tried to catch the baby because she was about to fall off of it," Qing Chen said
Chen risked life and limb to make it over to the store in time to save the baby.
"I was running across the street, I didn't pay attention to traffic. All I was looking at and focused on was if the baby was gonna fall, and if she was I was gonna hurry up and catch her," he said.
Witnesses said the little girl came dangerously close to falling.
"When I saw the baby I was in complete shock. I didn't know how it got there," said fellow Good Samaritan Eric Bokman, who tried to help Chen.
"I was shaking. I started screaming, and the baby was crying and screaming, everybody was like 'Oh my god!'" neighbor Amy Vaccaro said.
"We started yelling at the baby, 'Don't move! Don't move!' and she crawled back and stopped and started crying," Chen said.
The daring rescue had a happy ending. The good Samaritans were able to climb up and rescue the child, who suffered only minor injuries.
Chen said he then got the idea to find the apartment the child came from -- B7. He said he banged on the door until the grandmother answered and showed him the window. Detectives were later seen leaving the building.
"She was cooking at the time, and when I knocked on the door, I asked her 'What are you doing?' She said, "I was cooking,'" Chen said.
Chen, a father himself, said he held the 18-month-old like it was his own daughter until an ambulance arrived to take the child away.
"Personally, it doesn't feel like I'm a hero. I'm just glad she was okay, that's all," he said.
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