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00:00This morning, a veteran MTA bus operator is being called a hero for his quick actions on the job in Manhattan.
00:07Pretty incredible. Louis Jimenez was driving his bus when he noticed the little girl on the sidewalk.
00:11Then she ran into the street and that's when his fatherly instincts kicked in.
00:16I mean, how scary is that? Here's Eyewitness News reporter Lindsay Tuckman with the story.
00:21It was a Tuesday in September and MTA bus driver Louis Jimenez was considering calling out sick.
00:28But thankfully, he didn't.
00:30My instinct as a father came on because I would see a kid, if I see a kid in the street in need of help,
00:40I would want somebody to help one of my children or one of my grandkids.
00:45Yep, the 60-year-old was just wrapping up his morning shift on the Crosstown M116
00:50when he spotted a 5-year-old girl, seemingly by herself, on the sidewalk near 106th Street and Broadway.
00:57You know, my wife always, you know, kind of like, she's worried about me
01:02because she knows that when I see something, it's like we have a saying in the MTA,
01:07if you see something, say something, or well, with me, I will do something.
01:12And indeed, Louis keeps an eye on her for a block or so before telling a passenger to call 911.
01:18He then pulls over and calls his dispatcher, and with the help of other riders, gets the young girl on the bus.
01:25Police arrive and get her safely back to her family.
01:28Apparently, her school, which was 10 blocks away, had reported her missing when she wasn't in class.
01:34Police say the little girl didn't have a history of leaving school, but her pet fish had just died.
01:40And so on that day, she left with the plan to go to a pet store and buy a new one.
01:45You hope she got that fish?
01:47Well, hopefully, it's either if she didn't get it, we should help out on trying to get it for her.
01:52Les temps sont difficiles et il y a des choses qui se passent tous les jours.
01:57Et tous les jours, nous devons venir avec une attitude positive et être en mesure,
02:01même si c'est négatif partout dans le monde, nous devons aller à l'avant et faire la différence.
02:10À Harlem, Lindsay Tuckman, Channel 7 Eyewitness News.