Ex-Con Saves Baby: Georgia Highway Discovery Stuns Hero Bryant Collins
An ex-con saved a baby on a Georgia highway, and now people are hailing him as a hero. Bryant Collins was just doing his job when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. That something was 15-month-old Emily Pickens, who had managed to crawl away from her home and right up to Highway 72.
KPLC TV shares that little Emily was about 300 yards from her house across the woods when Collins saved the baby. He immediately called 911, and he waited with Emily for a couple of hours until everything could get sorted out properly. He said that at one point the tot started crying, so he played some gospel music on his phone to calm her down.
The situation provided an interesting opportunity for Collins. He shared that years ago he tended to get into a lot of trouble, and he even was incarcerated for 10 years for having manufactured cocaine. These days, however, Collins is clean, and he’s been that way for the past five years.
The ex-con who saved the baby now works as an auto repairman, a gig that happened to have him driving down the highway and right into the path of Emily Pickens. The toddler’s father, Timothy Pickens, has been arrested for the incident. Authorities indicate that the girl’s mother may face charges as well.
The story of the Good Samaritan saving the baby on the Georgia highway has naturally gone viral, and the attention has been a bit overwhelming for Bryant Collins. 11Alive shares that the initial report received more than 600,000 likes on their Facebook page after being seen by 30 million users. Though Collins of course didn’t save Emily for the attention, he seems touched that so many have thanked him for what he did. He says his family is very proud of him, and it sounds as if that is particularly meaningful after the challenges he’s faced in his past.
While Bryant Collins isn’t the first ex-con to turn his life around, the Georgia highway experience most definitely provides a unique opportunity to touch other people. It’s easy to find stories of ex-convicts who continue to find trouble, but this is one example where a man showed how determined he was to change course. Collins says he hopes to inspire other people with the experience, noting that if one keeps trying and “makes a serious effort to want to be changed, with God’s help, you can be changed.” Luckily, the case of the ex-con saving the baby on the Georgia highway has a happy ending, at least for Bryant Collins and the unharmed Emily Pickens.
[Image: NBC News]
