Heartwarming video shows deputies rescuing 5-year-old girl with autism lost in Fla. swamp: ‘Every second counts’
Heartwarming video captured the moment cops safely found a 5-year-old girl with autism who got lost after wandering into a thick Florida swamp.
Three Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies were seen coming across the lost girl in Tampa after being directed by a helicopter search crew that found her using thermal imaging technology.
“Hey!” one of the deputies cries out, opening his arms who waves back while standing in swamp water.
“Come here, sweetheart … let’s get you out of the water,” the deputy warmly tells the girl, who walks forward to be picked up and carried to safety.
The girl’s panicked mother had reported her missing just after 5 p.m. Monday when she realized her daughter, who was not identified because of her age, was not at a neighbor’s house, as she had thought.
“Now the panic starts to kick in,” Sheriff Chad Chronister told WFLA.
But the girl was found unharmed in the swamp “in under an hour,” the sheriff’s office said.
“In situations like this, every second counts, and it’s always rewarding to see this quick response for our deputies, and to see such a positive outcome,” Chronister said.
“Their quick action saved the day, turning potential tragedy into a hopeful reunion.”
Chronister noted that deputies faced numerous obstacles in addition to the dense Florida vegetation that got in the way of getting the girl to safety.
“When you have to work with people that suffer from autism, there are a lot of obstacles that are created,” he said. “One is, they’re drawn to water. The second is a lot of times they struggle with communication.”
Chronister said there was a program called “Safety Net” that the department has on their aviation units and some of the patrol cars that help them quickly recover both missing children or people with autism and elderly people who might wander away.
The young girl walked away from the frightening ordeal with only a few scratches, Chronister added.
