When Meinhardt looked to see why the car stopped, he saw a little boy who looked to be about 3 or 4 years of age, he said. The boy was wet, cold, hunched down and walking on the other side of the road, Meinhardt said in a story that appeared in a National Guard publication.
He immediately stopped the car, turned his hazard lights on, rolled down his window and yelled for the boy to stop to keep him from walking onto the road. He called 911, then called his wife, a supervisor for Butler County Children Services, to let her know what was happening.
Another man stopped and found out the boy’s name and that he was trying to get to his grandmother’s house.
When a Butler County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived on the scene, he thanked Meinhardt for being the one who stopped to help the child.
Traffic was starting to back up on the road, holding up Sandra Wilmer as she tried find her grandson. Wilmer, who had been babysitting the boy, woke up to find the front door of her house wide open, she said. She immediately looked to see if her grandson was in the house and when she couldn’t find him, got into her car and began driving to the boy’s mother’s house
When she looked in the back of the cruiser, she saw her grandson.
“I was thrilled that someone had found him safe,” she told the publication.
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