A city bus driver in Milwaukee is being lauded as a hero after she rescued a young child wandering the streets in just some light clothes and socks in the middle of the night.
Denise Wilson, a driver with the Milwaukee County Transit System, was taking a short break during her shift in the early hours of Jan. 29 when she came across the 5-year-old boy.
"It's after midnight, so I'm just like, am I really seeing what I'm seeing?" she told ABC affiliate WISN-TV. "He came out of nowhere, out of nowhere. I just happened to look over and heard him crying."
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A surveillance recording from the bus shows Wilson carrying the little boy onto the bus and out of the cold. WISN-TV said the high that morning was 31 degrees; the low, 22 degrees.
"You OK?" she can be heard asking him. "Still cold? Still a little cold?"
As they waited for police to arrive, Wilson said, she gave the child her jacket and something to eat.
Milwaukee police said that the child was reunited with his family and that it was determined he "left the house by mistake."
Wilson said she didn't consider her actions heroic.
"I'm happy I made that stop. You know, I always say God puts us in places, you know, where he needs us at times," she said. "I don't look at it as being a hero — just being there to help."