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May 14, 2008 12:15 am US/Eastern
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6-Year-Old, Good Samaritan Reunited In Patchogue
Anna Mae Russo Was At Right Place At Right Time, And Rescued Wandering Child Near Sunrise Highway
Reporting
Lou Young
EAST PATCHOGUE, N.Y. (CBS) ―
As first reported by CBS 2 HD on Monday night, a 6-year-old who wandered out of his Long Island elementary school ended up in tears near the Sunrise Highway.
A Good Samaritan rescued him. On Tuesday, little Daniel Stevenson met his hero.
His mother is a nurse. His father is a correction officer. Little Daniel is apparently a wanderer. Where he was found Monday is no place for an unaccompanied child, especially one who was supposed to be in kindergarten.
The woman who found Daniel walking along a lonely stretch of service road alone in the rain on Monday stopped by his house on Tuesday night to accept the boy's gratitude and that of his mother.
Daniel walked out the front door of Medford Elementary School and was found a full mile away on the Sunrise Highway. Anna Mae Russo was driving by and knew something just wasn't right.
"I pulled over and immediately called police," Russo said. "And I said I'm going to stay with him, but I didn't want to scare him."
Russo stayed until the police picked Daniel up and brought him home. To say his mother, Jacqueline Stevenson, is grateful is an understatement.
"We all know what's out there," she said. "He's my child and anyone could have picked him up and taken him away. I would have gone at 3:30 p.m. to pick my child up and they wouldn't have known he was missing. I would've went at 3:30 p.m. and my child would have been how many hours gone?"
Daniel was late to school on Monday and was signed in at the principal's office, but they sent him to class alone and the class had gone into an assembly without him. So Daniel simply made other plans for the day.
Daniel told CBS 2 HD he wanted to stay home and play video games, but kids obviously shouldn't be allowed to wander off whenever they feel like it.
The Patchogue-Medford School District has made a number of procedural changes because of Monday's incident, including adding additional hall monitors at Daniel's school.
The superintendent was all apologies.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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