San Diego County deputies and off-duty dispatcher rescue boy with special needs on freeway

SANTEE, Calif. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - It was a frightening sight: An 11-year-old boy alone, just feet away from busy freeway lanes, but two deputies and an off-duty dispatcher shared how they came together to rescue him.

Drivers don't expect to see this, and neither does the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's (SDSD) ASTREA helicopter pilot: A young boy in the highway's median.

"He's just running in front of all the vehicles," said Shiloh Corbet, a Santee resident.

Corbet just happened to see the boy running up a ramp from Mast Boulevard.

"And all these cars are honking at him," Corbet shared.

She called 911.

The boy is 11-year-old and has special needs. Less than an hour earlier, he apparently wandered away from his family at a grocery store.

"I think it's about three miles," said Deputy Michael Moser with SDSD.

"I don't think anybody was expecting him to be that far," said Deputy Cody Green also with SDSD.

The boy somehow made it that far even after his family called the police.

Corbet knew something was up when she saw the boy. The veteran sheriff's dispatcher heard the call come in before she left work.

"It was my Friday," Corbet explained.

She called dispatch and kept track of the boy until help arrived.

"I was shaking, praying, 'Please, please do not get hit by a car,'" Corbet remembered.

Deputies Moser and Green were seconds behind. They saw the boy crouched at the top of a steep embankment just feet away from danger.

"Jumped out of the car, ran up the hill," Deputy Moser shared.

"We needed to react as quick as possible at that point," Deputy Green expressed.

"I was kind of hoping that I could get him to come to me," Moser added.

"He started to move away quickly," Green also added.

The boy hopped onto the shoulder with unsuspecting cars blazing by.

"And he started running right then and there," Moser said.

"I want to get that kid away from the freeway as quick as possible," Green further added.

One wrong step would've changed this story. Instead, Moser and Green held the boy's hands down to safety.

"Proud, I guess. Pretty cool," Moser expressed.

The boy was quickly returned to his frantic mother, thankful for the deputies and the off-duty dispatcher whose Friday wasn't over just yet.

"She was very happy to get her kid back," Moser remarked.

"Obviously, she's super thankful," Green declared.

"It was just such a relief," Corbet expressed.