Boy’s Rescue Due to Good Timing : Accidents: Two deputies and a neighbor saw the 18-month-old boy floating in a pool just before he began to sink.

An 18-month-old Thousand Oaks boy found floating in a swimming pool was rescued unharmed Friday by a neighbor after a sheriff’s deputy investigating a theft saw the child.

Casey Broker, who apparently found his way into the fenced pool while his mother was answering the telephone, was pulled from the water by Michael Shugart, 31.

“If Mike and the police hadn’t been there, he’d be dead,” the child’s mother, Kathy Broker, said. “Knowing he was alive, I could count my blessings.”

Casey wandered from his front yard, found his way through a gate and into the pool in the Las Casitas condominium complex in the 1700 block of Calle Diamonte, Broker said.

At the time, deputies John Popp and Mark Briggs were investigating the theft of $500 worth of tools from the complex’s maintenance department.

Popp said he was talking to Shugart, an ex-maintenance employee who had volunteered information about the crime, when he noticed a child in the pool about 25 feet away.

Initially, Popp said, he assumed the child, who was floating spread-eagled on his back, was learning how to swim and that someone was supervising him.

But then the boy’s head went under, and water squirted from his nose, the deputy said.

Popp said he yelled, “The kid’s drowning!” and he, Briggs and Shugart began looking for a way into the pool area, which is guarded by a five-foot-high fence.

Shugart, who scaled the fence, reached the child first and pulled him out of the shallow end.

“I was freaked out,” Shugart said. “I was over in a second to get him out.”

Popp estimated that Casey had been in the water about two minutes. Popp said he rolled the child onto his side, and Casey coughed up some water and began crying.

Moments later, Broker, 28, arrived with Shugart, who lives in the condominium next to her.

The Fire Department and an ambulance were called. Casey received oxygen and was taken by his mother to Los Robles Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and released, she said.

Broker said she had been in her front yard playing with Casey, her 7-year-old daughter, Melissa, and Melissa’s friend when the phone rang. She said that when she next looked out her window, the child was gone.

Popp said it appeared as if someone had rigged the lock on the gate leading to the pool so it would not close completely, allowing the toddler to wander in.

“He was on his way down to the bottom,” Popp said. “We just happened to catch him.”

Janet Bergamo contributed to this story.