A little boy, around 6 or 7 years old, ran away from his parents. Fascinated with trains, he quickly snuck onto the New York City subway and rode the train miles and miles away.
That's when Matthew Sacks, a father himself, spotted the little boy. He was dangling his foot over the edge of the train platform. He was dangerously close to the edge, but the boy didn't look afraid.
Sacks recognized that fearlessness from his own son, who has autism. He knew that the little boy wasn't going to stop. Sacks looked around but didn't see a parent. Other train passengers stared but no one really did anything.
“He kept saying, ‘Train.’ You know, he was flapping his arms back and forth,” Sacks said. “My son’s autistic, so I figured it’s a sign of autism.”
Sacks took a photo of the boy and immediately called 911. The child reminded him too much of his own child and he only could imagine what the missing boy's family was going through.
“I went over to him calmly, approached him, got him to calm down, got him to sit down with me, and I immediately called 911,” Sacks said. “That’s one of my biggest fears on account of a child with autism — the fact that they have no fear.”
After the police arrived, the boy was escorted to his family. The boy wasn't gone long enough to warrant a missing children's report, so there was no Amber Alert. Sacks' wife is grateful he was there.
“That could’ve been us, and I’m grateful Matthew was there and he was helping. It could’ve been a bad ending, not a happy ending," said Ladmilla Sacks.
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