Photo: Fort Wayne Police Department
An Indiana family is praising the efforts of the Fort Wayne Police Department for rescuing their toddler after he wandered away from their home last week.
The boy's father, Alex Calvillo, told WPTA that they had family and friends over when their three-year-old son, Aziel, who is autistic, wandered out of the house.
"My friend goes, where's your son? So, I was like, 'He should've been on the couch watching his tablet," Calvillo said.
After looking around their house, they realized he was gone and called 911.
"Like, okay, this is serious; I need to call the cops. They're all out looking for him as well, and it's obviously nerve-wracking at this time, and with being pregnant, it's even more stressful because I'm just like, I don't know where he's at," Aziel's mom, Savannah Ybarra, told the news station.
Officer Evan Myers responded and began searching the neighborhood. After being told that Aziel likes water, Myers checked the backyard of a nearby home with an aboveground pool. As he approached the pool, he could hear Aziel cry, so he sprinted over and found him floating in the water.
Myers pulled Aziel from the water and radioed in that the boy was safe.
"I want to personally thank him for finding my son," Ybarra told the station.
"I definitely want to give him a huge thanks, I can't describe how grateful I am for him. It definitely means a lot to us and our family," Calvillo added.
The Fort Wayne Police Department shared Myers' body camera footage from the rescue on YouTube, which you can watch below.