Good Samaritan who saved lost toddler from running onto road accuses helper of being remorseless

SINGAPORE: A passerby who intervened to save a young child from running onto a main road has criticised the boy’s caregiver for what she described as a lack of concern after the child was found.

The incident was shared on the Complaint Singapore Facebook page, where the Good Samaritan recounted coming across a toddler wandering alone near One Punggol at around 5:45 pm.

She wrote that the child, believed to be about 1 or 2 years old, was barefoot and playing with a ball on the road when he fell. Moments later, he began running towards a main road.

Alarmed by the situation, the passerby said she rushed to catch the child and soon realised he appeared to be lost.

“I had to catch him, and I realised he’s lost,” she wrote, adding that other passers-by told her they believed the boy had come from the direction of One Punggol.

She then brought the child back towards the building in an attempt to locate his parents or caregiver.

The woman said she eventually found a domestic helper whom she believed was looking after the child. However, she was taken aback by the helper’s reaction.

According to the post, the helper scolded the boy for running away and was overheard telling him, “Wow, you’re so smart, you know to come back.”

The rescuer said the comment left her stunned, as the child had allegedly been heading away from One Punggol and towards a main road when she found him.

“He could have died,” she wrote, expressing frustration that the seriousness of the situation did not appear to be acknowledged.

She also claimed that the toddler had suffered a bleeding toe.

In her post, the woman appealed to the child’s parents, saying that if they had a son named Zayle who had been carrying a blue ball and was at One Punggol that evening with a younger child being carried by a helper, they should contact her.

Netizens responding to the post praised the passerby for stepping in and preventing what could have been a tragedy.

“Thank you for helping the kid,” one commenter wrote. Another said, “I hope the boy’s parent found out eventually.”

Some commenters also argued that the matter should have been escalated further. One suggested that the rescuer should have followed the helper home and informed the parents directly, writing, “Next time, follow helper go back home and complain to parents.”

Others felt the police should have been involved.

“I would have called the police immediately so their parents are aware of the negligence,” one commenter said, adding that they would not have handed the child over without first asking for proof that the person was the legal guardian.

Another commenter agreed, writing, “If I were you, I will bring him to the nearest police station and put him there.”

Some netizens also shared their own experiences of witnessing young children being left unsupervised near roads.

One commenter recalled seeing a helper distracted by her phone while a toddler in her care ran onto a service road in an HDB estate.

“It’s a service road for HDB flats and usually not many cars, but it’s still a road,” the commenter wrote. They said they stopped their car, shouted at the helper to alert her, and then scolded her before driving off.

While the circumstances surrounding the incident remain unclear, the post has prompted renewed discussion online about child supervision and the responsibilities of caregivers when looking after young children in public spaces.