Shocking footage of a young child standing on the roof of a Canadian home just minutes before a heroic bystander pulled him to safety has gone viral.
Viewed over 100,000 times on Facebook as of Friday afternoon, the clip shows a small boy, wearing only a diaper, standing upright on the first-floor rooftop of his residence in Hamilton, Ontario.
As a small crowd gathers below, witnesses begin dialing the authorities alerting them to the situation.
Viewed over 100,000 times on Facebook as of Friday afternoon, the clip shows a small boy, wearing only a diaper, standing upright on a first-floor rooftop
As a small crowd gathers below, witnesses begin dialing the authorities alerting them to the situation
Before the police arrived, however, a ‘quick-thinking’ witness was able to rescue the child from danger by breaking into the home and grabbing the boy
The Hamilton Star reported that police were called to the scene of the incident at around 3.30pm Wednesday afternoon.
‘I was shaking,’ Cassandra Fleet told The Star as she drove by the scene. ‘My heart was beating out of my chest.’
Before the police arrived, however, a ‘quick-thinking’ witness was able to rescue the child from danger.
With the residence split into two apartments and the front door locked, authorities said a bystander broke into the downstairs apartment through a screen window and then went upstairs into the upper-level apartment.
From there he was able to grab the boy through an open window, with Fleet providing moral support the whole time, telling the child: ‘It’s OK buddy. Just stay put, stay by the wall.’
Police said that the boy’s mother was napping when he managed to climb onto the rooftop by squeezing through a window with a missing screen.
The boy’s mother was ‘shocked’ to find out what happened while she was asleep, holding the toddler in her arms while the police questioned her about the incident, according to The Star.
Criminal charges are not expected to be filed against the parents of the toddler, Const. Lorraine Edwards told The Star.
But added: ‘It only takes a moment for a young child to put themselves in a dangerous situation.’
Police said that the boy’s mother was napping when he managed to climb onto the rooftop by squeezing through a window with a missing screen