Note: we are republishing this story, which originally made the news in June 2015, in light of recent reports that show a significant increase in human trafficking and abductions in America during the pandemic.

In California, a bus driver is being recognized as a hero by the police for helping to rescue a 3-year-old boy who was kidnapped and in aiding in the abductor’s arrest.

Tim Watson was on his morning shift when he read a police alert that stated a child went missing from a Milpitas public library. According to the report, the child was taken and carried from the library by a homeless man who looked to be in his twenties.

Watson then noticed a man and a boy looking teary-eyed who matched the description from the police report who were sat on his bus. He then thought of a plan to lead the kidnapper to the police.

Watson announced to his passengers that a passenger had left a backpack on the bus and that he needed to stop the bus to search for the bag.

It was when he got closer to the man and the child that the boy’s shoes were indeed red, matching the description from the police.

Once he was done with his fake search, he stepped off the bus to contact the police and inform them that the child and his abductor were on his bus.

The police then instructed him to drive the bus normally as he would. When he arrived at the next station which was Fremont BART, the police officers were already there and waiting.

The suspect, Alfonso Edington, aged 23, then got off the bus with the child. It was then that he was identified by the waiting police. One of the officers then tried to pry the boy away from Edington.

Watson shares that he “became very emotional” when officers informed him about how the child was abducted. “This could have been my child that was abducted. What if I didn’t read that message until I got to Fremont BART?”, he adds.

Edington has been charged with kidnapping and the child has been reunited with his parents at the police headquarters of the Milpitas police.