While at Peet's Coffee recently, a man I didn't recognize
came up to me out of the blue and said "I remember you! You are the guy
that snatched a baby off the roof of a car!"
About 7-8 years ago, on another day at Peet's, I was in
the process of putting a little sugar in my coffee when I heard a group of
people suddenly yell, "Oh No!" Curious, I looked out the window just
in time to see a young mother beginning to back out of her parking space into
the street—with her baby still in the car seat on the roof of the car!
There were a lot of people outside watching this happen,
but no one moved to do anything. Without thinking, bad knees and all, I raced
outside to grab the car seat off the roof ( I don't think I have ever run that
fast before or since). The woman looked at me in horror to see me with her
baby's car seat in my hands. When I looked down into the car seat all I could
see were two little feet sticking out of a blanket, the baby blissfully unaware
of any danger.
The mother stopped the car, got out, took the car seat
out of my hands, strapped it in the car and took off without saying a word. I
don't think she was ungrateful. I think
she was choked with fear over what could have happened and mortified by the
thought that she had forgotten her baby on the roof of her car. It didn't help
that her nearly disastrous mistake had been witnessed by 15-20 people.
Looking back, it was striking that so many people who
were a lot closer than I was, failed to act.
I think most of them were just caught off guard.
There are so many opportunities in front of us every day
to do good. When the time comes and your
opportunity is in front of you, will you ACT? You never know how or when your
actions might avert disaster or, at the very least, leave a lasting impression.
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