CHESTER, VA—
It was a chance phone call that saved a little boy's life. The child who lives in Georgia was able to find a helping hand hundreds of miles away in a call center in Richmond, Virginia.According to police in Georgia the four-year-old boy had been living alone for several days, when he got a call from someone at Capital One. He answered the ringing phone and hung up, but was somehow able to return the call. That call connected the child with call-center worker, Chamara Washington, who works at the Chester Capital One call center.
Washington says she heard the sound and desperation in the little boy's cry and knew something was terribly wrong.
"(He) kept saying somebody wouldn't wake up," recalls Washington."He was crying and wouldn't stop crying. I started asking questions."
The four-year-old told Washington he was with an adult but could not get them to wake up. She says the child asked her to come over and help.
"(He) said he was watching TV, but it turned off and (he) wanted me to come back over and turn it on. I asked him if he was scared and he said yes."
Washington got in touch with Georgia police. Because the child called her - she had his phone number. She gave that to police and they were able to trace the landline back to the child's home and rescue the boy. Washington later learned that the child was found with a "deceased" adult and had been fending for himself for at least three days.
"She's a hero. She did the right thing and saved the boy's life," says Tamika Smith-Baxter, Washington's supervisor at Capital One. "We are all proud here."
Chamara says she just did what any mother would do - listened and followed her instincts.
"I'm a protective mother. I have a five-year-old. I wanted to jump in my car and help him out."
Chamara Washington tells CBS 6 she was most worked up when the child told her he just made himself some cereal for dinner.
Washington says she doesn't know what exactly happened to the boy's caregiver but was told the child is in the custody of Georgia Child Protective Services and she hopes to meet him one day.
