A Memphis man is being hailed a hero after discovering twin babies left alone in a cold vacant home.
The man’s quick thinking helped save two 9-month-olds from behind a door tied shut with a shoestring.
It was just before 7 p.m. on Feb. 3 when Nicholas Garrett, 33, heard a screaming baby as he was getting out of his vehicle in a Memphis residential neighborhood to drop off a friend.
“I heard a baby hollering, like somebody was whupping a baby,” Garrett said.
Garrett, a father of three, said he started walking toward the sound of the baby’s crying until he neared a vacant home in the neighborhood where he noticed a baby boy standing in the doorway of a home that turned out to have no running water or electricity.
“I saw the baby’s hand come out the door,” Garrett told WHBQ.
“They had the door tied up with a shoestring. I ran up there and got the baby out of the house. He didn’t have on no clothes, but a pamper,” he added.
After picking up the baby, Garrett took to Facebook Live and began asking “whose baby is this?”
In Garrett’s video, he’s seen walking around holding the shirtless baby. He is also heard speaking with a neighbor who revealed the baby has a twin, prompting Garrett to ask where was the other baby. Garrett said the neighbor told him the twins would frequently be left at the home by their parents who also occupied the vacant home. At the time the children were discovered, the parents were not at the home.
Temperatures in Memphis were in the 30s the day the babies were found. Garrett said he felt the baby shivering as he picked him up.
“It’s so cold. That baby was shaking so hard,” Garrett said in his Facebook video.
Minutes later, he called police to help locate the babies’ parents.
As police arrived, Garrett is heard explaining his discovery of the baby but alerting the officers another child could be inside the home. Police later found a second baby wrapped in a blanket inside the vacant home.
“I heard him at this house, but his hand was coming out the door. The baby didn’t have no shirt, no shoes, and no pants,” Garrett is heard explaining to the officer.
After sharing what he knows with the officers, a visibly distraught Garrett regrets not checking the vacant home more thoroughly to ensure no one else needed help inside.
“I was supposed to have walked back in that house. When that woman told me it was a twin, I should have walked back in that house,” he said.
Once police took hold of the scene, the children were checked out by EMTs. The children were found to be unharmed according to reports. The local child services department was called to the scene to investigate before the babies were released to the custody of a family member.
“I don’t know how long they were over there,” Garrett told WBTV. He went on to say an EMT on scene told him the babies were likely left alone at the home for 26 hours.
Garrett continued to update the status of the twins after their rescue on his social media page. He also bought the babies supplies and gave them to the relatives who have custody of them while police and DCF continue their investigation.
“We went to Walmart, Family Dollar, and we got so much stuff for this baby, like both of them,” Garrett told WBTV.
Memphis Police told Atlanta Black Star no arrests have been made in the case, but police and DCF are not finished investigating.
Social media users who saw his video thanked Garrett for his quick thinking and alerting authorities.
“God bless you cuz. You was at the right place at the right time,” Shaleka Wilkins said on Facebook.
We will continue to update this story as it develops.
