3-Year-Old’s Street Adventure Ends Happily

It was every parent’s nightmare. And on Father’s Day, no less.

But for Eileen Gonzalez, who scrambled out of her car to rescue a desperate, lost little boy running in traffic on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, it was an experience that both touched and broke her heart.

“He is such a wonderful little boy, and I thank God I found him and took care of him,” said Gonzalez, 21, who grabbed the 3-year-old after he was nearly struck by a van in the wee hours of Sunday morning. “If I ever lost my children, I would hope somebody would do the same.”

During the two hours they were all together, Gonzalez and her friend Nicole Bluma fed Jacob--police released only his first name--gave him warm clothes and cuddled him when he cried. When it was over, it was the women’s turn to shed tears.

“I was already planning to adopt him in case they couldn’t find his parents,” Gonzalez said.

Police called the women good Samaritans. “Those two ladies stayed with Jacob the whole time to make sure he was OK,” said LAPD Sgt. Dan Mastro of the West Valley Division. “They didn’t have to do that, but they did.”

The women said they simply acted on instinct.

Gonzalez was sitting in her car just before 4 a.m. at the intersection of Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Devonshire Street when she saw the youngster dart into traffic.

Jacob was nearly struck before Gonzalez could get out of her car and grab the boy, who was barefoot and dressed in pajamas covered with baseball designs.

That began an emotionally wrenching morning for Gonzalez and Bluma, 24. A gregarious child with a shock of brown hair, Jacob chattered about baseball and monkeys while the women tried to find out where he lived.

Jacob’s parents were attending a wedding in another state. The boy’s grandparents were watching him, but he had somehow managed to defeat the deadbolt lock on the front door and escape.

“He was actually in a very good mood,” Bluma said. “But then he got a little teary-eyed and he started to cry.

“He kept saying his mom and dad weren’t at home and that the cars were chasing him.”

The women drove the boy to Gonzalez’s Canoga Park home, where they gave him socks and a sweatsuit to keep him warm. Gonzalez, an insurance claim representative with two small children of her own, fed him juice and then called police.

Officers Jeff Levey and Darren Costi arrived and put Jacob in their police car. They drove around the neighborhoods near Topanga and Devonshire, with Jacob directing them as they searched for his house.

The effort was aborted when it became clear that Jacob didn’t know how to get back home.

“We think he was so tired that he was just saying yes to anything,” said Bluma, who rode along.

Bluma said the officers told them they had no choice but to hand Jacob over to child protective services.

Jacob was asleep in Gonzalez’s arms at the West Valley LAPD station when a panicked call came in at 5:30 a.m., reporting a child missing in Chatsworth.

Jacob’s grandparents had awakened and discovered the child gone. The boy’s Chatsworth home is eight blocks from the intersection where he was found.

As the officers strapped Jacob into their patrol car to take him back home, Bluma and Gonzalez broke down.

“We both started to cry when the police took him away,” Bluma said. “We gave him kisses and just kept saying, ‘Please don’t open your door and leave your house again.’ ”

Thoroughly exhausted yet utterly elated, the two women went to Gonzalez’s house and fell sleep. But a short time later they were awakened and surprised to find Jacob’s grandparents at their door. The grandparents brought back the clothes that Gonzalez had dressed Jacob in and thanked the women for taking care of their grandson.

The grandparents were unavailable for comment Sunday, but Jacob’s grandmother “was so happy and so thankful,” Gonzalez said. “She said she had been so scared and that she had been looking for Jacob all over.

“She was just so glad we saved him.”