Englewood man hailed as hero for helping girl, 7, found wandering in snow

CHICAGO (WLS) -- An Englewood man is being hailed as a hero for helping a child he found wandering in freezing temperatures and more than a foot of snow.

"Anybody know this little girl right here?" Tony Taylor asked in a Facebook Live Wednesday. "I just found her off 59th and Halsted."

Taylor found the girl wandering on the street, carrying a laptop and wearing nothing more than a onesie.

"We want to acknowledge, salute and honor you for being an angel and a hero, not only in Englewood. You saved a baby's life," said 16th Ward Ald. Stephanie Coleman.

"When I put her in the car, it brought tears to my eyes," Taylor said. "She said, she just looked at me and said, 'Mr. Sir, I love you.' And I said, 'I love you too.'"

Taylor said he gave the girl a hoodie to wear and called police before taking to Facebook Live in an attempt to find someone who knew her. Officers arrived a few minutes later and took her to the hospital to be checked out. She told police and Taylor she left home on her own.

"She told me that, 'I don't want to go home to my mommy and daddy,'" Taylor said.

Taylor said based on the address she gave him, it appears she may have walked as much as a mile in the cold and the snow.

"No one saw her walking? I don't understand that," he said. "When I was grabbing her foot, it's not like she was outside for five minutes. Her feet were, I mean, like icicles. She was just crying and crying and crying."

Police said they located the girl's parents and she has temporarily been placed with extended family while the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigates what happened and why.