Two barbers who dropped everything to save a little girl from running into traffic say they are simply dads with lucky timing.
Surveillance video posted to the Instagram account of Look Sharp Barbershop owner Osvaldo Lugo and his employee Rafael Santana shows the pair racing out of the establishment after a young girl who ran down the road by herself.
Santana tells TODAY.com that he was cutting hair in the East Hartford barbershop when he saw a small pink reflection whiz by the window.
“I said, ‘Yo, there’s a little girl by herself,'” he says. “At the shop, we joke around all day to make the hours go by so I’m glad (my co-workers) believed me.”
Santana, a father of four with a baby on the way, says he’s always vigilant, especially in public. “I have to keep my eyes on my kids.”
Santana and Lugo ran out the door and chased the girl, who was heading toward a busy intersection. As Lugo’s Instagram video shows, Lugo caught up with her at the crosswalk.
Lugo, a father of three, tells TODAY.com that while running, he kept thinking to himself, “You better get her on time.”
“[As the shop and building owner], I have a responsibility to this corner of the street,” he says. “When I grabbed her, she was yelling for her mom. I looked around and saw her mother at a bus stop ... around the corner.”
Lugo walked the little girl back to her mother, who Lugo says seemed confused and shocked but grateful. Then, with their clients waiting, the men returned to the barbershop.
East Hartford Mayor Connor Martin awarded Santana and Lugo with hero certificates. And the local police department publicly commended them.
“Heroic Barbers to the Rescue! Today, we want to give a massive shoutout to the quick-thinking and brave duo, Osvaldo Lugo and Rafael Santana of LookSharp Barbershop,” read a police department Facebook post. “Their swift action saved a little toddler who had escaped from his mother and started moving towards traffic on Main Street. Thanks to them, a potential tragedy was averted, and a family remains whole. We’re incredibly grateful for these everyday heroes among us!”
Santana says he and Lugo are simply dads with lucky timing.
“We did this out of love and we’d do it a million times again,” Santana tells TODAY.com. “We protect and serve our community at all costs.”