An 18-month-old girl was rescued by a neighbor after she crawled out of a window and ended up on a store awning in Brooklyn Friday afternoon.
A worker at the Bensonhurst computer store said he heard commotion outside, and when employees went out, they were told a baby was on their awning.
"We saw the baby crawling and it was crawling towards the edge and it was like, whoa," said a witness, Gleb Chemerisov.
After an employee got a ladder from the store that was too short, Qing Chen, a worker from a pharmacy across the street, was able to get up on the awning and get the toddler, while others waited below to catch the child in case she fell.
"I was like, we can't stand around waiting for her to fall, so I went into the apartment and knocked on her door," Chen said.
When the child's grandmother came to the door, Chen said she didn't seem to know what had happened.
"I'm like 'Your baby is outside, she's about to fall, I need to get her,'" Chen remembered telling the startled grandmother.
They couldn't get the windows to budge so Chen said he crawled through a small hole between the air conditioner and the window, onto the fire escape, then to the roof before he could reach the toddler.
The child was taken to a hospital for observation but was not believed to be injured, officials said.
Police said the girl's mother was also inside the home at the time and that no charges are expected.
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Cradling his own 11- month-old daughter Friday evening, Chen said he hoped this close call would remind parents to be more careful.
"When I gave the baby to her mom I almost cried because I know that could happen to my baby and I wouldn't want that to happen," Chen said. "I'm no hero, I just didn't want the baby to fall."
