WATCH: Bus driver rescues 5-year-old wandering alone, barefoot in Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE (WLS) -- A bus driver who stopped to take a midnight break wound up finding and rescuing a 5-year-old boy wandering in the cold alone and barefoot on the streets of Milwaukee.

"It was after midnight, so 'Am I really seeing what I'm seeing?'" driver Denise Wilson told WISN. "He came out of nowhere out of nowhere. I just happened to look over and heard him crying and he was just running up Center [Street]."

Surveillance video from Jan. 28 shared by the Milwaukee County Transit System shows Wilson walking off the bus empty-handed and returning with the boy in her arms.

Once on the bus, she gave the boy a coat and a snack after calling police.

"Are you OK?" she can be heard asking on the video. "Still a little cold?"

Milwaukee police said the driver kept the boy on her bus until officers arrived and investigated. They determined the boy had wandered away from home "by mistake."

Wilson, who has only been on the job for about six months, said she was inspired by her family and faith that night.

"I'm a child of God, and a lot of times we try to do what's right when we see something happening, and if we're there to help and have the ability or means to do it, that's what we're supposed to do, so I don't look at it as being a hero just being there to help," she told WISN.