Strangers save missing boy

Photo: Contributed

Missing five-year-old boy found downtown Kelowna and taken to safety.

A group of strangers came together to help a missing five-year-old boy back to safety after riding his bike across the highway in Kelowna this week.

Philippa Putlitz had just left the Shoppers Drug Mart at Bernard Avenue and Gordon Drive on Monday and was unlocking her bicycle when a man in a vehicle tried to get her attention.

“He said there was a kid riding on a bike in the middle of the highway, "he is going to get hit by a car" and that he couldn't catch up to him,” Putlitz recalled.

Putlitz, who works in youth services, pedalled as fast as she could to the highway.

“I didn’t see a kid until I got right to the lights,” she said. “It had just gone green, and the kid waited for green to cross the highway.”

Tractor-trailers and trucks were honking as the small boy rode his bicycle.

“I chased after him with my bike, stopped traffic in the middle of a green light. It was crazy,” recalls Putlitz.

She convinced the boy to get off the bike, take her hand and walk across the street.

“He told me his mom and dad were at work and he was supposed to be at home with his babysitter,” she said.

Kelowna RCMP sent out a press release to media about a missing boy just after 11 a.m., saying he went missing from the South Pandosy area at 10:15 a.m.

“That is a far way to go,” she said. “Apparently, he went across the highway a few times. He was lost, and so unsure.”

A ministry social worker, who is also a co-worker, drove over to the two, and together they took the boy to the police detachment.

Putlitz said the man who flagged her down drove over to make sure the boy was OK.

“I wouldn’t have been able to halt traffic for this kid if that man didn’t tell me to chase him,” she said.

RCMP notified the public just after 11 a.m., that the boy was safe.

“I think it’s cool that a bunch of civilians came together to help this kid out,” said Putlitz.