DELTONA, Fla. – A Florida deputy is being hailed a hero after locating and rescuing a missing 5-year-old with autism from a pond on Tuesday.
According to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a report of a missing child from a home on Valmont Lane in the Deltona area around 7:30 p.m. A father told deputies that his 5-year-old son escaped the house through a second-story door, which set off an alarm. The family immediately began looking, asked neighbors for help, and called 911.
Deputies searched the house and the immediate area with no luck. Deputies began checking bodies of water near the neighborhood, considering the 5-year-old’s attraction to water and his autism. Deputy Wes Brough and others headed for a pond a few blocks away behind Toluca Court.
“Around 7:48 p.m., Deputy Brough heard a voice and spotted the boy out in the water, hanging onto a log,” the sheriff’s office said. “Deputy Brough jumped into the pond and carried the boy to dry land, where he was medically cleared and returned to his family.”
It was confirmed the family had taken several measures to secure the house, including the alarm on the door that immediately alerted them the boy had gone missing.
Deputy Brough and others were commended for their efforts, aided by Autism Awareness Training.