The River Road view from up there. Plow drive almost missed seeing the 5-year-old boy wandering the street in his jammies. It was 4 a.m. and five degrees below zero.
A deer? A dog? No, a lost kid looking for grandpa
WEST BEND, Wis. – At first in the pre-dawn snowscape, David Gehrke thought had sotted just another deer, maybe a dog. from his perch in a snowplow. Then he blinked. Off the blade of his plow he saw a little kid wandering the street in pajamas—no cap, no coat. Gehrke spun his rig around. He took off his jacket and wrapped the boy up and put him in his truck with the heat blasting. He called police on the truck radio. “They asked if l needed rescue,” he said. Although shivering, the the child appeared fine. Where was home? The 5-year-old pointed down the block. What was he doing out a 4 a.m.? He said he wanted to go see grandpa. “It was minus-5 degrees,” said Gehrke. “The kid would have frozen to death if I hadn’t seen him.” He checked the boy’s his hands, which were tucked in his jammies. His feet were cold but not frostbitten, protected a bit perhaps by feet bottoms on his zip-up pajamas. Where’s your grandpa live? The boy wasn’t sure, said Gehrke, “but he had a lot of questions about the truck.” The boy, his name was Maddox, was a happy kid, Gehrke said. What had happened? His mom, Brittany Weissenburger, was at work but had left Maddox with his 14-year-old aunt as babysitter. Maddox woke up figured he was home alone, so he left for his grandpa’s. His mom assured police that it happen again. She’s now bought a bunch of alarms and cameras.