https://nypost.com/2019/12/25/three...bronx-on-christmas-morning-saved-by-neighbor/
Two-year-old spigger found wandering Bronx on Christmas morning saved by neighbor
By Reuven Fenton, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon and Ebony Bowden
December 25, 2019 | 3:21pm | Updated
A wandering tot was found all alone on a Bronx stoop Christmas morning wearing nothing but a diaper — but was rescued safely from the cold thanks to a good Samaritan and the FDNY.
Luis Angel Guzman, 2, got out of his family’s Irvine Street apartment at around 10 a.m., opening the front door by himself and making a break for it as his aunt and grandfather snoozed inside, according to mom Lusenny Guzman, 21, who says she had stepped out on a grocery run at the time.
Marlene Melvin, 40, was visiting her mother on the same street when she stumbled across the boy standing outside the apartment building, crying and barely clothed in the frigid 34-degree weather.
“I heard a baby cry. I was with my 10-year-old son, and he was like, ‘Mom, is that a baby?’ When we got in front of the house, I said, ‘Oh, my God, yeah, that’s a real baby,’ ” Melvin told The Post.
Luis Angel Guzman
Lusenny Guzman
“The baby saw me and he picked up his arms like, ‘Pick me up,’ so I picked up the baby. He was just standing on the steps and the door was wide open. The baby must have just walked out of the house,” she continued.
“It’s Christmas morning, it’s freezing out here, and there’s a baby wearing just a pamper on concrete steps, crying.”
The quick-thinking hero shouted into the building but got no response, so she took the boy to her mother’s house and dressed him in clothing belonging to her own 2-year-old before dropping him off at the local firehouse, she said.
“I answered the door,” said firefighter Sean McAuliffe. “There was a woman standing there with a baby, and the first thing she said was, ‘We found a baby.’ ”
The firefighters determined baby Luis was in good spirits despite being a little cold and looked after the tyke until emergency medical services and local police arrived 20 minutes later.
“It didn’t take much to keep him calm,” McAuliffe said. “He just seemed like he was just happy to be inside.”
Added Battalion Chief Paul Luffman: “I come downstairs, it’s Christmas, and I see the baby as calm as can be in Sean’s arms.”
The Bravest said Luis was calm and relaxed despite being a little lost and seemed “right at home” in the firehouse.
“We gave him one of our firehouse caps, and it fit him perfectly. He’s probably going to be a fireman when he grows up,” he joked.
“It was a miracle. It was nice to see that people on the block were out and were able to see the baby,” Luffman continued, thanking the good Samaritan.
“They’re the heroes. They saw the baby crying across the street, saw he was in diapers in 34 degrees, dressed him and brought him over to us,” he added. “We’re a safe haven.”
Meanwhile, the mother says she had only been gone for 15 minutes to get some juice and left the door unlocked. She realized something was wrong when she got a distressed call from her younger sister, Celine Guzman, 14.
“My sister called me and told me,” Lusenny told The Post. “I worried that something could’ve happened to him, that he could’ve been hit by a car or something — something ugly.”
The family had no idea that firefighters were looking after their little boy less than 400 feet away at FDNY Engine 94/Ladder 48, the mom said.
EMS and police showed up to the firehouse, picked up Luis and brought him home in an ambulance.
“They were waiting for me to take him to the hospital,” she said from Lincoln Hospital — where the tot was sound asleep, still wearing the sweater and long johns that Melvin had dressed him in.
Social workers from the Administration for Children’s Services were also at the hospital, his mom said. ACS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police filed no charges against the family, officials said.
The mom thanked Melvin for saving her boy.
“I’m very grateful,” she said. “I would thank her from the bottom of my heart.”
Added McAuliffe: “We’re just happy to see a positive outcome.
“The baby’s OK,” he added. “He’ll get the care he needs.”