Toddler rescues elderly man locked inside of hot car
Just days after learning about the dangers of being trapped inside a hot car, 3-year-old Keith Williams' quick thinking saved the life of a 68-year-old man stuck inside his sweltering vehicle.
Bob King was waiting for his wife outside Vestal Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Saturday. The car doors automatically locked, and he didn't have the key. As the temperature inside the car hit 120 degrees, King — who over the past six months has had two strokes and gone through cancer treatment — became weak. He saw Keith walk by, and began to knock at the window to get his attention.
"I hollered at him and he just looked at me kind of funny and I said, 'Get help, get help,'" King told ABC News. Keith had just learned about car safety from his mother, and tried to open the door himself. When he couldn't, he ran to Pastor Jack Greene, and began to say, "Locked, locked, locked" and "hot, hot, hot." He pulled Greene to King's car, where the good reverend opened the door after several tries. King fell out and almost hit his head on the pavement, but was quickly brought into the air-conditioned church and given water.
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King was grateful for his tiny helper, and Keith knew that what he did was special. "He said, 'I saved life' after I brought Bob inside," Greene said. "He is such a good kid. He is an inspiration and blessing to us." --Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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