The young girl wandered out toward the road looking for her parents after she was left home alone. (Google)
A quick-thinking Wendy’s employee in Florida is being credited with rescuing a scared toddler who wandered out of her apartment — and toward a busy intersection — after she was left home alone.
Daniel Hunter, an employee at the Wendy’s in Fort Walton Beach, was leaving the restaurant after his shift ended around 11 p.m. on Monday night when he spotted the 3-year-old girl walking down Eglin Parkway.
PICS: TACO BELL SELLING FESTIVE SWEATERS, ONESIES THAT LOOK LIKE SAUCE PACKETS
“I was like, wait, that’s a kid,” Hunter told WKRG of spotting the child, who was searching for her parents.
Police in Okaloosa County added that the girl was only wearing a diaper, tank top and boots in the 44-degree weather when she attempted to cross the street.
Hunter, who was being picked up from work by his father, said his dad spun the car around before he and his father got out of the vehicle.
“She ran to me and hugged me and was crying for her mom," Hunter told WKRG.
GRAPHIC VIDEO: HAWAII BURGER JOINT CLOSES AFTER FOOTAGE APPEARS TO SHOW RAT ON GRILL
Police later charged Kenneth Lopez Toledo with child neglect after he admitted to leaving the girl sleeping at home while he went to pick up his wife from her shift at Walmart.
Police charged Kenneth Lopez Toledo with child neglect after he left the sleeping girl alone in the apartment. (Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office)
“Lopez Toledo says he didn’t want to wake the girl so left her at the residence; however he took another child, a [2-year-old], with him when he left to pick up his wife at the Fort Walton Beach Walmart,” police said on Facebook.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office added that the girl had walked 700 feet from the apartment to the intersection before she was discovered. Hunter said Lopez Toledo had also caught up to the girl and “hugged her for dear life” after realizing she wasn’t home.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS
Lopez Toledo was booked and released at an Okaloosa jail, according to WKRG.
Fun stories about food, relationships, the great outdoors and more.