VIDEO: Maryland Postman Rescues Missing Toddler

A postal worker in Elkridge, Maryland, said Wednesday that it was God who helped him find a toddler who had been missing for nearly 10 hours.

As United States Postal Service (USPS) employee Keith Rollins drove northbound on I-95 around 8 a.m. Thursday, he noticed something unusual, according to WUSA 9.

“I happened to see a little head,” he recalled, adding, “I didn’t know whether it was a human head or whether it was an animal, so I pulled over and called 911.”

Rollins exited his vehicle and approached what he soon realized was a missing 2-year-old named Ethan Adeyemi, shivering in the cold.

“He only had a pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt, no shoes or socks, so I walked up to him. I said, ‘Hey buddy. How you doing? What’s your name? Are you OK?’ He looked at me, but I didn’t get a response from him,” the postman recalled.

Wednesday, Adeyemi’s family said he disappeared after he followed an adult outside their home at about 10:20 p.m.

When they realized he was gone, the family contacted police and began searching the surrounding area with fire personnel, K-9 units, and helicopters from neighboring departments.

However, it was Rollins who found him the next morning.

He continued:

Once I didn’t get a response from him, I decided to just scoop him up, and I took him to my vehicle. I had a sweater that I tried to cover him up with, and turned up the heat and I called the police back and said that I had the little boy in my vehicle, and within a matter of minutes, the police were there.

Authorities later said Adeyemi is believed to be on the autism spectrum and is currently non-verbal. However, he responds by clapping when he hears his own name.

Following his rescue, the boy was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for hypothermia. He is now back at home with his family who said they were thankful for the community’s efforts to find him.

Rollins, who is grandfather to a little girl about Adeyemi’s age, said he did not consider himself a hero for saving the child.

“Giving glory to God that I was able to help at that particular time and be in the correct place at the right time,” he concluded.