Eight-Year-Old Hailed As A Hero For Saving Sister During Kidnapping: ‘This Little Guy Is A Hero’

An eight-year-old boy named Chance from Cincinnati had no idea that he would soon be hailed as a hero. But his actions deserve all the plaudits.

Earlier this week, Chance and his 10-year-old sister, Skyler, were traveling with their grandmother, 69-year-old Nita Coburn, to the Atrium Medical Center in Middletown in Cincinnati. Nita Coburn got down to help her sick daughter into a wheelchair and take her towards the entrance of the medical center. Usually, in such situations, she would lock the children in the car for a few seconds. But on Thursday, she forgot the keys of the car inside, meaning the doors of the car were unlocked.

At some point when Nita Coburn was outside, a 24-year-old man named Dalvir Singh got into the driver’s seat of the car and attempted to drive away with the children still in the back seat. While Chance tried to get away with his sister, Singh reportedly got hold of Skyler’s hoodie and would not let her go.

“The little boy opened the door to escape and the little girl started to jump out also but the man grabbed the hoodie of the little girl not allowing her to leave,” the Middletown Police Department wrote on Facebook Friday.

“As she tried to get away, her little brother grabbed hold of her and pulled her away from the kidnapper and they both tumbled out of the vehicle as it was moving.”

Nita Coburn thought she had locked her car. She wouldn’t have left her great-grandchildren alone in the back seat otherwise, she said, even as she helped her sick daughter into a wheelchair outside Atrium Medical Center’s emergency room.

She hadn’t. https://t.co/8bNdOsuxPt

— WCPO 9 (@WCPO) April 28, 2019

The children successfully managed to eject themselves from the moving car, but Nita Coburn didn’t know this. The grandmother kept running with the car in the opposite direction and even clung to it before it accelerated away. She had no idea that the kids were already outside.

“Every time I think about it, I want to cry,” she said. “It’s the most morbid feeling in the world.”

Fortunately, the kidnapper was apprehended a few miles away and has been charged with two counts of kidnapping, felonious assault, and grand theft. But Nita Coburn is just happy that the kids are safe.

“That car didn’t bother me at all,” Coburn said. “It was them two babies. No one needs to feel that fear. No one does.”

Middletown Police Department Chief Rodney Muterspaw hailed the actions of eight-year-old Chance, saying what he had done was undoubtedly heroic.

“This little guy is a hero. No question. He pulled his sister out of the car with no concern for his own safety. That is incredible at his age.”

Middletown police Officer Connor Kirby agreed.

“What Chance did was extremely heroic. It shows how extremely brave he was and how much he loves his sister.”

Local law enforcement plans to formally recognize the eight-year-old’s actions at a later date.