You have to see this! Police officer rescues child found running on highway

A DRAMATIC RESCUE — A police officer recently rescued a child who was spotted running on a Florida highway and the intense dashcam footage of the incident has gone viral.

Video shared by North Port Police Department on Oct. 8, 2025, shows a child running on the highway in the dark. The officer, who had passed the child while in his patrol vehicle, immediately turns his car around and heads back to where the child was at.

As the officer gets closer, a car can be seen traveling in the same lane the child is running in. Miraculously, the driver avoids hitting the boy.

“We got a small child running down the road … just almost got hit by a car,” the officer can be heard saying.

While in his vehicle, the officer then follows behind the child as the child runs from off the highway and onto a sidewalk. The boy stops running for a moment and the officer stops his car, but as soon as the officer gets out of his vehicle, the child takes off running again.

North Port Police Department said in its Facebook post the child has developmental delays. He had reportedly wandered from his home that night “despite having safety devices in place to prevent something like this from happening.”

“I want to emphasize that the parents in this case did everything that they could to prevent an occurrence like this but unfortunately the child was able to manipulate the safeguards and get out of the home. It happens,” North Port Police Department said in the Facebook video. “Please provide grace to this family. This was a very terrifying time for them.”

The police department said thanks to the sergeant’s quick-thinking, the child was safely reunited with his family.