Moreno Valley

Little Girl Found Wandering Busy Highway in San Jacinto

"She could have got ran over. Somebody could have took her."

In the Inland Empire, a good Samaritan found a toddler wandering along a busy highway, leading to a Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation Thursday.

The man recorded the heart-stopping moments after finding the child on Gilman Springs Road in the unincorporated area of San Jacinto at 5 p.m.

Luis Navarro, who found the girl, said it was a miracle she wasn't hit by a car.

"I'm driving and look at what I find in the street - in the middle of the road," he can be heard saying on the video showing a small girl in a bright pink dress.

The road is a busy thoroughfare that connects Moreno Valley with San Jacinto and Hemet.

"I was in shock," Navarro said. "I couldn't believe there was nobody out there with her at all. She could have got ran over. Somebody could have took her."

Navarro immediately pulled his truck over and ran to the girl who was playing in the shoulder of the road.

"She was to the right of the driveway, playing with a piece of paper a bag. Just kicking it kinda towards where the cars were coming," he said.

Navarro held the girl's hand and asked her where she lived. She began to cry, so he asked her where her parents were.

She told him in Spanish that her parents were in bed. She eventually led him to a home which is on a farm about 300 yards away from Gilman Springs Road.

Navarro said a boy who was about 10 years old led him inside the home to the parents.

That's when Navarro asked them how they could let their child wander off.

"The guy made it seem like she gets out a lot and I was in disbelief when he said that," Navarro said.

Riverside County Sheriff's investigators interviewed the parents of the little girl.

They said the mother told them that she was watching an infant sibling when the toddler somehow got out of the house.

NBC4 tried talking to the parents but they never answered the door.

"I don't want nothing bad to happen to the parents if nothing is going on. But if something is going on, the first thing is the child's safety," Navarro said.

The girl was not injured.

It's still unclear if the parents will face any criminal charges.

Contact Us