Autistic Child Rescued From Busy San Diego Area Freeway

SANTEE, CA — An autistic child is safe after being rescued from a San Diego area freeway, authorities said Monday.

The 11-year-old boy, who is nonverbal, was reported missing shortly before 4:30 p.m. March 9 after he was last seen at a supermarket in the 9600 block of Mission Gorge Road in Santee, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office. He had been with family before running out of the store.

While driving home from work around 5:15 p.m. that day, sheriff's Dispatcher Shiloh Corbet spotted the child running along Mast Boulevard near a state Route 52 on-ramp, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office.

Corbet called the Sheriff's Communication Center to report the sighting, but saw the boy run up the freeway on-ramp. She then stopped her vehicle and followed the child, who had crossed the westbound lanes and was standing in the center divider of the freeway.

"Knowing the child's name from the information given to her by the Sheriff's Communication Center, Corbert called to him to stay where he was at for his own safety," the sheriff's office said in a news release. "The entire time, she was relaying information on the phone to an on-duty sheriff's dispatcher supervisor, who was directing deputies to the scene."

Responding deputies found the child at the top of a steep embankment and tried to contact him, but he moved away from them, the sheriff's office said. He began moving toward the center divider guardrail, and deputies ran up the embankment and tried to stop him.

"The child hopped the guardrail and started running along the busy freeway," the sheriff's office said. "Without hesitation, deputies Cody Green and Michael Moser jumped over the guardrail and raced to catch up to the child."

The deputies were able to get the child off the freeway. He was later reunited with his family. No one was hurt.