Bus Driver Helps 5-Year-Old Found Walking Alone After Skipping School: 'My Instinct as a Father Came On'

Mar. 15, 2025

A New York City bus driver came to the rescue of a little girl after he spotted her walking alone last month.

“We have a saying in the MTA, ‘If you see something, say something.’ " Jimenez told the outlet. “Well, with me, I will do something.”

Jimenez said he observed the child for about a block until he asked a passenger to call 911, per the report. He then pulled the bus over and alerted his dispatcher, and he and the other passengers brought the girl on the bus.

A New York City Police Department spokesperson tells PEOPLE that police responded to a 911 call about a missing person in the area of West 95 Street and West End Avenue.

“Upon arrival, it was reported to officers that a 5-year-old female was missing from school,” the spokesperson says. “Responding officers immediately conducted a canvass and responded to multiple 911 calls reporting possible sightings of the missing. One of the 911 calls reported that the missing was last seen on an eastbound M116 MTA bus.”

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“Officers were able to track down and stop the bus that the missing [girl] was on. EMS responded to the location and evaluated her on scene. There were no injuries reported as a result of this incident,” the NYPD adds.

“My instinct as a father came on because if I see a kid in the street in need of help,” Jimenez said about what he did, via WABC, “I would want somebody to help one of my children or one of my grandkids.”

In addition to his MTA bus-driving duties, Jimenez, 60, has a side gig as a member of the Timeless Torches, a dance group that performs at New York Liberty games, theNew York Postreported.

According to the Liberty’swebsite, the Timeless Torches consist of men and women aged 40 and over “who want to share their love of performance with the New York Liberty crowd!”

Jimenez was seen performing on Sunday, Oct. 13, during the WNBA finals at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, where the Liberty play their home games.

In a 2013 interview with thePost, Jimenez compared dancing with the Torches to the “fountain of  youth” and added that the activity helps him with his bus driving job.

“Helping people out driving the bus is the best thing in the world,” Jimenez told the newspaper at the time.

source: people.com