The driver of a VTA bus is being called a hero after helping to find a child who was allegedly abducted from the Milpitas library.
Police say, not only was Tim Watson alert, he stayed calm, doing what he needed to drive the bus and the boy to safety.
Watson was driving his bus toward the Fremont bus station when he got an alert from dispatch: Be on the lookout for a 3-year-old boy with plaid short and red shoes, the very description of the boy sitting with a man in his bus's backseat.
“I wanted to look at the clothing articles on the little boy without the gentleman seing, and I saw his red shoes, and that was a red flag to call it in,” Watson said.
Watson was told to make his way to the Fremont BART station where police would be waiting, a 10-minute drive, but Watson stayed calm.
“We continued like normal, like nothing happened,” Watson said. “Didn't want to alert him anything's different.”
Once at the BART station, Watson waited for police to get in position and opened the door. Police arrested the man and took the boy to safety.
“The boy was very happy in the police care, and I knew he was at good place now,” Watson said. “This little boy could have been escorted anywhere in the country, or worse case, a murder.”
Just thinking about what could have happened and the nightmare the boy's mother went through is hitting Watson hard.
“What she went through, just for those few hours,” he said. “She was wondering where her child was.”
