Letter Carrier Brian Cossel was delivering mail recently in a Wapakoneta, OH, neighborhood when he spotted a 4-year-old boy wandering alone outside, wearing only a diaper.
Cossel called the child over and asked him where he lived, but he didn’t respond.
The concerned Postal Service employee thought he’d seen the boy at a nearby apartment building, so he took him there and located a resident who knew where the child lived.
At first there was no answer at that unit, and police officers soon arrived after receiving a call from a passerby who’d also seen the boy walking around.
Finally, the child’s father came to the door, unaware of the emergency. He explained that he’d been asleep and that the boy’s mother had apparently forgotten to lock the top deadbolt when she left for work.
The man added that his son has autism and may have been drawn to a river that fascinates him, and he thanked Cossel for going out of his way to keep the boy safe.