TOLDEO, Ohio — A truck driver from Ohio was in the right place at the right time when he found a 12-year-old girl with developmental disabilities wandering on the side of the highway.
Derek Flory was driving his usual route around 1 a.m. on Feb. 15 when a small light suddenly caught his attention and moved into the middle of the road.
“Once I blared the horn, the light went crazy,” she said. “As I got closer, I found out that it was not a bicycle and it was a little girl.”
Flory immediately pulled over and directed the child away from the highway.
“She came straight to me,” he said. “I was able to get her into the truck and then pull up to a local business with a parking lot and that’s when I called the cops.”
“I called them and say, ‘Hey I have this little girl on 23 north,’ and they said, ‘Okay, we’ve been looking for her,'” Flory explained.
“They showed up, they said grandma called probably 10 to 15 minutes beforehand, so luckily she wasn’t out too long from what we know.”
Flory stated that if the girl’s mobile torch had not been turned on, he would not have seen her in time to stop.
“It definitely hit close to home because it’s one of those things where like it’s scary, it’s really scary,” Flory said. “I’d like to say God put me there at that time and place.”
