Video Shows Young Autistic Boy Rescued From Busy California Highway

A young autistic boy who went missing from a grocery store was found alone on a California freeway and rescued last month, authorities said, releasing video of the incident Monday to mark Autism Awareness Month.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to a report that an 11-year-old nonverbal autistic boy was with his family at a supermarket on Mission Gorge Road when he ran out of the store shortly before 4:30 p.m. on Sunday March 9. His family called authorities when they weren’t able to locate him.

Deputies on the ground began searching and were joined by a sheriff’s department helicopter, which began making announcements about the missing child in the area.

While the search was ongoing, at around 5:15 p.m., off-duty Sheriff’s Dispatcher Shiloh Corbet was driving home from work when she spotted someone running along Mast Boulevard near the State Route 52 on-ramp. Believing the person fit the description of the missing child, she called it in.

While she was on the phone, she saw the boy running up the freeway on-ramp. She stopped her car and began following the child, but by the time she reached the shoulder, the boy had crossed the westbound lanes and was standing in the median.

Corbet called out the boy’s name and told him to stay where he was. When deputies arrived, they parked below the SR-52 overpass and could see the child at the top of a steep concrete embankment.

Aerial video shows the boy crouched down on the embankment, and when the two deputies approach, he runs away toward the guardrail. The deputies ran up the embankment to stop him, but the boy jumped the guardrail and started running along the busy freeway.

“Without hesitation, Deputies Cody Green and Michael Moser jumped over the guardrail and raced to catch up to the child,” the sheriff’s office said. They reached the boy and got him safely off the freeway. No one was injured.