Atlanta restaurant manager protects lost boy who wandered onto busy street

ATLANTA - A young boy is safe with his parents after a restaurant manager risked her life to save him. The woman rushed out and stopped traffic when the child accidentally wandered into the street in southeast Atlanta.

Something told Delta Harper to step outside to get some fresh air while she was working at Agave restaurant on Boulevard near Memorial Drive on Sunday evening.

"I come out to curb here. And I see this young fellow riding his scooter, back and forth," said Harper, the assistant general manager at Agave.

It was a young boy, about 7 years old, who was lost, alone, and scared.

"He seemed terrified," Harper said. "You could tell that he didn’t know where he was."

Harper saw the boy dart onto the very busy Boulevard SE.

"He decides to pick up his scooter and step into the street," she said.

With cars barreling down the street, Harper knew she had to act, saying she felt her "mother instincts kick in."

The woman dashed into the road and launched herself between the boy and oncoming traffic.

"I just jumped out there and screamed, 'Stop! Stop! Stop!' Top of my lungs," Harper said.

She said she heard drivers slam on their brakes and quickly got the boy up on the sidewalk.

Harper brought the boy into the restaurant and found out his parents had called the police in a desperate search for their son.

"The cops come in, I mention his name and they say ‘This is the kid we’re looking for,'" she recalled.

It wasn't long before the boy was reunited with his grateful mom.

"I just grabbed her and we hugged for - it seemed like an eternity. I just started bawling - crying. It makes me feel like it’s what any mom would do," she said.

Harper said she was just grateful she was in the right place at the right time.