‘Dad instincts’ take over: Man approaching car on busy street surprised by what’s inside
When Rod Olsen saw a Hyundai Sonata creeping down McHenry Avenue at about 15 mph Thursday evening, he took notice.
When it slowly started clipping parked vehicles north of Morris Avenue, he thought the driver must be drunk or suffering a medical emergency.
He pulled into the nearest parking lot, jumped out of his truck and approached the back of the Hyundai, where he snapped a photo of its license plate in case the driver tried to run away.
But when he got to the driver’s side of the vehicle, “I look inside ... and there’s no driver at all,” Olsen said.
“I look in the back seat and there’s a girl,” Olsen said. “I look at her ... and as I’m saying, ‘are you OK,’ she loudly says, ‘don’t hurt me!’”
“Right then and there, my dad instincts kicked in,” he said.
Olsen said the girl — who he later learned is 9 — looked traumatized.
He explained to her that he needed to reach into the vehicle and turn on the hazard lights. The car was blocking the right southbound lane of McHenry during rush hour, around 5:15 p.m.
“I was telling her we need to get out and get on the sidewalk,” Olsen said. “You could tell she wasn’t in the right frame of mind. I got her out; she was shaking, trembling; I quickly got on the phone with 911.”
Olsen explained the situation he came upon, but then the operator started asking him questions he couldn’t answer, so he handed the phone to the girl.
That’s when he learned what had happened to her.
He listened as she explained to the operator that her mother, a DoorDash delivery driver, left her in the vehicle while she picked up food at Garcia Jo Jo’s, about a block to the north.
Modesto police Sgt. Kalani Souza said the vehicle was left unlocked and running. He said a man got in the car and drove away but quickly noticed the girl in the backseat.
She told police that he started yelling and jumped out of the car, leaving it in drive as it continued down McHenry Avenue.
“I am sitting here listening and (this girl) doesn’t know where her mom is, she doesn’t know anyone, and she leans into me for a hug,” Olsen said. “This is a moment she is going to remember for a long time, and just to be able to provide some sort of comfort was kind of cool.”
The police arrived a short time later, and the girl’s mother was located. Olsen said she was very relieved to be reunited with her daughter.
Police said Friday that the suspect has not been located. He’s described only as a white or light-skinned Latino man wearing a dark sweatshirt and jeans.
“The situation could have been so much worse; this guy could have kept going,” Olsen said. “I guess it is the best scenario that could have happened.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 4:13 PM.
